Christopher Peter Atamian (/əˈteɪmɪən/) is a New York-based literary critic, writer, translator, curator and filmmaker who was the recipient of the 2015
Ellis Island Medal of Honor. He has translated works from French and Armenian into English including; The Bois de Vincennes (2013), The Rosy Future of War (1999), Fifty Years of Armenian Literature in France (2016), and Trashland (2023).
Atamian is the co-founder and curator of Atamian Hovsepian Curatorial Practice, a gallery and cultural center located in New York City. AHCP seeks to exhibit the full spectrum of creators including women, LGBTQ+, BIPOC, SWANA and other artists and practices whose methods, forms and expressions have been unrecognized or marginalized.[5] Atamian has directed and produced short videos and films including Sarafian's Desire, a short video which was based on his translation of
Nigoghos Sarafian's The Bois de Vincennes.[6]
His work has also been screened at the
2009 Venice Art Biennale as part of Voulu/Obligé Armenian Diaspora Pavilion as part of
Berlin's Underconstruction Artist collective.[7]
Atamian has co-produced the
OBIE Award-winning play Trouble in Paradise(2006),[8]Dear Armen (2014),[9] MTV music videos, the dance film Psychic Data Mining and an experimental film For You, My Beloved Grandparents, which screened during the 2005
Yerevan International Film Festival (now called Golden Apricot International Film Festival).[10]
Atamian has authored several screenplays, including The Plagiarist, Resurrection Myth/Harnoomi Arasbel[11] which was screened at the 2021 ARPA International Film Festival (Arpa IFF),[12] 2021 Tokyo International Short Film Festival and received
Gulbenkian Foundation’s 2020 Be Heard! Prize.[13]
Publications
Translations: from French to English
The Rosy Future of War,[14] by Philippe Delmas, Free Press, 1999
Fifty Years of Armenian Literature in France,[15] by Krikor Beledian, 2016, Fresno State University Press
Trashland,[16][17] by Denis Donikian, Nauset Press, 2023
A History of the Armenian Language, by Marc Nichanian, Fresno State University press, forthcoming in 2024.
Literature and Catastrophe, by Marc Nichanian, Fresno State University Press, forthcoming in 2024.
Translations: from Armenian to English
The Bois de Vincennes,[18] by Nigoghos Sarafian, Michigan State University Press, 2013
Ararat by Davit Hakobyan, AGBU Books, 2022
Writing career
Creative writing
Atamian's first book of poetry A Poet in Washington Heights[19] received the 2017 Tölölyan Literary Prize.[20] His essays have appeared in; The New Criterion,[21]The Hye-Phen Magazine,[22][23][24]Rusted Radishes:Beirut Literary and Art Journal,[25]The Los Angeles Review of Books,[26]The Harpy Hybrid Review[27] and Yerevan Magazine.[28] His essay As I Lay Dying: AIDS and Perec's Endotic was awarded second prize in the Question Your Teaspoons international essay competition, co-sponsored by IALA and
Oxford University.[29]
Atamian had been a supporter of the
LGBTQ community serving as the president of AGLA NY just like
AGLA France for two consecutive terms.[38] He was profiled in the Aurora Prize's 100 Lives[8] as one of the most prominent members of
Armenian diaspora.