About The Poet

Hovhannes Shiraz
(1915-1984)

When a book of Shiraz's poetry is published it sells out within a week in Armenia. "Memorial for my Mother", had a printing of 50,000 and sold out in the usual time.

Shiraz is Armenia's most popular poet. He was born in Alexandrapol (now called Gyumri) in Armenia, and lost his father in the Turkish invasions six years later. Shiraz worked in trades, in mills, and in various other jobs until the publication of his first book of poems, Spring Dawn (1935), which brought him instant recognition.

In 1941 he graduated from Erevan State University. His early writing, between I937 and 1941, when other poets were producing a party line brand of poetry called social realism, remained independent. His poetry has become even more nationalistic over the years, demanding the return of captured lands and the return of the diaspora to the homeland.