Hovhannes Tumanyan
1869–1923
Often called the poet of all Armenians, Tumanyan turned village life, folk tales and legends into poetry that is still read in every Armenian classroom.
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Armenian literature is carried by a small number of writers whose work almost every Armenian family knows by heart. These biographies explain who they were, what they wrote, and why their books still matter — in language students can actually use.
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The poet of all Armenians
19th CenturyRead the biography
Hovhannes Tumanyan
1869–1923
Often called the poet of all Armenians, Tumanyan turned village life, folk tales and legends into poetry that is still read in every Armenian classroom.
Notable works
- Anush
- The Capture of Tmkaberd
- Gikor
- A Drop of Honey
All writers
From Abovyan to Sevak
Six writers who span two centuries of Armenian literature, each with a full biography.
Yeghishe Charents
1897–1937
The defining voice of twentieth-century Armenian poetry, who combined modernist experiment with an intense attachment to his homeland.
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Raffi
1835–1888
The founder of the Armenian historical novel, whose books shaped how a whole generation understood its own past and future.
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Avetik Isahakyan
1875–1957
A lyric poet of exile and longing whose songs entered Armenian popular memory, admired abroad by writers including Alexander Blok.
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Khachatur Abovyan
1809–1848
The father of modern Armenian literature, who wrote the first novel in the spoken language and worked to make schooling accessible.
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Paruyr Sevak
1924–1971
A poet of conscience and memory whose long poem The Unsilenceable Belfry brought the Armenian Genocide back into public conversation.
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Grigor Narekatsi
about 951–1003
The monk of Narek whose Book of Lamentations became the most copied and most read work of classical Armenian literature, and the first medieval writer in this section.
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Daniel Varoujan
1884–1915
The Western Armenian poet of Pagan Songs and The Song of the Bread, who enlarged what the literary language could do and was killed in 1915 at the age of thirty-one.
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Nerses Shnorhali
about 1102–1173
The twelfth-century poet of Cilicia who wrote a verse history of Armenia in a single rhyme, the Lament on Edessa, and hymns still sung today, and who led the Armenian church for the last seven years of his life.
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Siamanto
1878–1915
The Western Armenian poet born Atom Yarjanian, who gave Armenian free verse its form and wrote the Adana massacre of 1909 into poetry in the year it happened.
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Hakob Paronyan
1843–1891
The Constantinople satirist and playwright, known in English as Hagop Baronian, whose comedies and satirical journals made Ottoman Armenian city life a literary subject.
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Alexander Shirvanzade
1858–1935
The realist of oil-boom Baku, born Alexander Movsisyan, whose novels and plays made money, family and social standing the central subject of Armenian prose.
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