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Peter Balakian
Portrait of Peter Balakian

Peter Balakian is the author of eight books of poems—including No Sign (University of Chicago Press, 2022); Ozone Journal (Chicago, 2015), which won the Pulitzer Prize; and Ziggurat (Chicago, 2010), a collection that deals with the aftermath of 9/11—and four books of prose, including Vise and Shadow: Selected Essays on the Lyric Imagination, Poetry, Art and Culture (Chicago, 2015) and the memoir Black Dog of Fate (Basic Books, 1997), which won the PEN/Albrand Prize. Among his other books are June-tree: New and Selected Poems 1974–2000, and The Burning Tigris: The Armenian Genocide and America’s Response, which won the 2005 Raphael Lemkin Prize. He teaches creative writing at Colgate University. (updated 10/2023)

The Pulitzer-winning collection Ozone Journal contains two poems first published in AGNI, “Near the Border” and “Slum Drummers.” The long title poem is a sequel to “A-Train / Ziggurat / Elegy,” which was first excerpted in AGNI before appearing in his earlier collection Ziggurat.

Read Ani Kazarian’s review of Balakian’s collection Vise and Shadow: Essays on the Lyric Imagination, Poetry, Art, and Culture.

AGNI has published the following work:

Essays
A Poetry Reading in Diyarbakir
AGNI 98 Print Only
Poetry
Lowlands
AGNI 52 Print Only
Poetry
Near the Border
AGNI 77 Print Only
Poetry
Slum Drummers, Nairobi
AGNI 80 Print Only
Poetry
Walking the Ruined City
AGNI 86 Print Only
Poetry
Carolyn Forché and the Poetry of Witness: Another View
AGNI 40 Print Only
Essays
An Armenian Journal
AGNI 33 Print Only
Poetry
East and West
AGNI 31 and 32 Print Only
Poetry
A Version of Paolo and Francesca
AGNI 26 Print Only
Poetry
To Arshile Gorky
AGNI 26 Print Only
Essays
Arshile Gorky’s Embroidered Apron
AGNI 26 Print Only
Poetry
Portrait Before Water
AGNI 7 Print Only
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