Armenian-American poet Arthur Kayzakian wins Black Lawrence “Immigrant Writing Series” prize

by Guest Contributor

March 6, 2022

Arthur Kayzakian has been named the winner of the inaugural Black Lawrence Immigrant Writing Series award for his collection, The Book of Redacted Paintings, which was also selected as a finalist for the 2021 Philip Levine Prize for Poetry. He is the first to receive such prize. 

The Black Lawrence Immigrant Writing Series aims to provide a clear and consistent home for new Immigrant Writings in U.S. book selections. The editorial board for the prize included Sun Yung Shin, Rigoberto Gonzalez, Ewa Chrusciel and Abayomi Animashaun along with advisory board members Barbara Jane Reyes, Ilya Kaminsky, Omofolabo Ajayi-Soyinka and Virgil Suarez. The goal of the Black Lawrence Immigrant Writing Series is to publish great works by emerging immigrant writers.  

Arthur Kayzakian’s The Book of Redacted Paintings, focuses on childhood memory through invasion, war, migration, and adapting to life in a new country. According to Kayzakian, The Book of Redacted Paintings came from “a combination of wishing I could paint the pieces I see in my head and the feeling of something torn out from within me due to a traumatic upbringing.” Kayzakian was born in Iran and came to the United States with his parents as a child. 

An excerpt of the book includes: 

Forgive me, collector, I am trying to get back to my world. 

I’ll leave dark pools of silence on your walls since all your paintings will be gone.

In response to the announcement, Kayzakian told Armenian America, “I am beyond thrilled to be part of the Black Lawrence family. Being selected means the world to me, it means everything I have survived has led me to this culmination. I know this is a win not just for me, but for my community.”

Kayzakian is also the winner of the Finishing Line Press Open Chapbook Competition for his chapbook, My Burning City. He has been a finalist for the Locked Horn Press Chapbook Prize, Two Sylvias Press Chapbook Prize, the C.D. Wright Prize, and the Black River Chapbook Competition. He is a contributing editor at Poetry International and a recipient of the Minas Savvas Fellowship. His work has appeared in or is forthcoming from several publications, including Taos Journal of International Poetry & Art, COUNTERCLOCK, and Chicago Review.

As part of the prize, The Book of Redacted Paintings will be published by Black Lawrence press.