The Palace of Forty Pillars by Armen Davoudian
- Sale Date
- ISBN
- 9781959030515
- Page Count
- 88
- Language
- English
- Imprint
- Tin House
Meet the Author
Armen Davoudian
Shortlisted for the 2024 Northern California Book Awards
A San Francisco Chronicle and LitHub Best Book of Spring
A Most Anticipated Book of the Season at The Rumpus, Publishers Weekly, and Autostraddle
“Brilliant and deft and heartfelt."―Richie Hofmann
Wry, tender, and formally innovative, Armen Davoudian’s debut poetry collection, The Palace of Forty Pillars, tells the story of a self estranged from the world around him as a gay adolescent, an Armenian in Iran, and an immigrant in America. It is a story darkened by the long shadow of global tragedies—the Armenian genocide, war in the Middle East, the specter of homophobia. With masterful attention to rhyme and meter, these poems also carefully witness the most intimate encounters: the awkward distance between mother and son getting ready in the morning, the delicate balance of power between lovers, a tense exchange with the morality police in Iran.
In Isfahan, Iran, the eponymous palace has only twenty pillars—but, reflected in its courtyard pool, they become forty. This is the gamble of Davoudian’s magical, ruminative poems: to recreate, in art’s reflection, a home for the speaker, who is unable to return to it in life.
A San Francisco Chronicle and LitHub Best Book of Spring
A Most Anticipated Book of the Season at The Rumpus, Publishers Weekly, and Autostraddle
“Brilliant and deft and heartfelt."―Richie Hofmann
Wry, tender, and formally innovative, Armen Davoudian’s debut poetry collection, The Palace of Forty Pillars, tells the story of a self estranged from the world around him as a gay adolescent, an Armenian in Iran, and an immigrant in America. It is a story darkened by the long shadow of global tragedies—the Armenian genocide, war in the Middle East, the specter of homophobia. With masterful attention to rhyme and meter, these poems also carefully witness the most intimate encounters: the awkward distance between mother and son getting ready in the morning, the delicate balance of power between lovers, a tense exchange with the morality police in Iran.
In Isfahan, Iran, the eponymous palace has only twenty pillars—but, reflected in its courtyard pool, they become forty. This is the gamble of Davoudian’s magical, ruminative poems: to recreate, in art’s reflection, a home for the speaker, who is unable to return to it in life.
Praise for The Palace of Forty Pillars
-
“Sonnet sequences frame this tight but adventurous volume. . . . frank in its cultivation of sensuousness, of beauty.”
Poetry Society of America -
“Brilliant. . . . Just like Emily Dickinson . . . keeping to the expectation of convention but also pushing it a little bit, a little bit like jazz.”
Padraig O’Tuama -
“Handsome. . . . resounds with assured formal attention. . . . the erotic and the everyday intersect.”
LitHub, A Best Poetry Collection of March
About the Imprint
Where the literary canon of tomorrow is born. Critically acclaimed titles that challenge, illuminate, and linger. Discover award-winning fiction, nonfiction, and poetry from emerging voices you’ll say you found first.
