Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation awards grant to Arpi Publishing

LOS ANGELES—The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation awarded a $15,000 grant to Arpi Publishing toward the publication of two Armenian-language young adult novels. The grant was made specifically to fund the publication of Karenn Chutjian Presti’s newest work, titled Odar Aran, as well as a volume by another author, to be determined by the publisher.

“We are delighted to receive the support of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation,” said Arpi Krikorian, founder and CEO of the nonprofit Arpi Publishing. “The foundation’s grant is critically important for what we’re trying to achieve, equally in terms of financial and moral support.”

Krikorian said that the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation grant will significantly contribute to Arpi Publishing’s goal of releasing its first collection of books. Generous support for this goal was provided last year by Mr. and Mrs. Brandon and Sonia Pierce and Mr. and Mrs. Kevon and Alexia Kevonian, who were also the first to donate funds to help start Arpi Publishing.

“Arpi Publishing was launched with the aim of establishing a catalyst for change,” Krikorian said, “namely a publishing house that could provide authors and book illustrators with the necessary funding and support to create original works of literature in Western Armenian, written for children and young adults.”

Dr. Hagop Gulludjian, holder of the Kachigian Lectureship in Armenian Language and Culture at UCLA and a member of the Arpi Publishing board, said, “To meet its publishing targets this year, and in order to be able to fulfill its full potential in the long term, Arpi Publishing needs community support. Every tax-deductible donation goes toward the publication of a new book. And with each school and community organization buying copies of the published books, our shared vision of a dynamic and ever-evolving literature, written in Western Armenian, is certain to come one step closer to being the new norm.”