A Poet in Washington Heights - Paperback

by Christopher Peter Atamian (Author)

Christopher Atamian celebrates the extraordinary cultural mosaic and landscape of Washington Heights in playful, nostalgic rhyme that honors familial love as much as urban romance, cutting to the core of queer desire. Drawing on influences as disparate as Nigoghos Sarafian and Patti Smith, Chris mesmerizes the reader with mythological figures and spiritual reverie, ultimately offering redemption for our troubled times-through his Armenian American and native New Yorker eyes. - Nancy Agabian, "Me as her again: True Stories of an Armenian Daughter", "Princess Freak"

Author Biography

Christopher Atamian is a noted writer and creative producer of Italian-Armenian background and the grandson of Armenian Genocide survivors. While his current work is increasingly devoid of overt ethnic topics, much of his early writings centered around issues of sexuality, ethnic origin and assimilation. Born in New York City, Atamian attended the Lycée Français before graduating from Collegiate School where he was a National Merit Scholar. He received his B.A. in literature, Magna Cum Laude from Harvard University and a Fulbright Fellowship to the ETH (Swiss National Polytechnic) in Zurich, Switzerland. He completed his education at USC Film School and Columbia Business School where he received the school's highest honor, the Samuel Bronfman Scholarship in Democratic Enterprise. Apart from creative endeavors and professional activities as a senior executive in leading media companies and consultancies, Atamian has concentrated on community activism. He is the former President and a current board member of AGLA New York and in 2004 founded Nor Alik, a non-profit cultural organization responsible for producing the First Armenian International Film Festival. He also co-produced the OBIE Award-winning play Trouble in Paradise in 2006, directed by Elyse Singer, as well as several music videos and short films. Atamian was selected for the 2009 Venice Biennale on the basis of his video Sarafian's Desire and received a 2015 Ellis Island Medal of Honor. He continues to contribute critical pieces to leading publications such as The New York Times Book Review and The Huffington Post, while working on other creative endeavors in film and theater.