Armen Melikian
Armen Melikian (b. 1963) holds a Master's in international relations from American University in Washington, DC. He has also studied mathematics at Harvard and elsewhere, and was admitted by the Mathematical Institute of Oxford University to pursue graduate studies in Analytic Geometry, Mathematical Physics, and Topology. However, due to personal circumstances he abandoned both politics and mathematics in favor of literature and dedicated his life to writing.
In 2002, Melikian repatriated to Armenia from the United States and for two years studied the Armenian epic tradition. His written observations on the post-Soviet society were obtained by the National Security Service (formerly the KGB) triggering his effective exile from Armenia. The homes of several of his friends were violently intruded to confiscate his manuscripts. His closest friends, including his future wife, were interrogated at the headquarters of the NSS-KGB. She was threatened with prosecution for "treason" should she fail to cooperate--and threatened with assassination should she continue her newspaper column where she had recently introduced Melikian's literary work. The NSS-KGB also invaded the premises of the National Public Radio of Armenia with the intention to arrest a prominent journalist minutes before a program by him was to air on Melikian's work.
Melikian is one of those rare thinkers whose intensity of passion matches their sharp wit and intellect. His poignant observations take to task the core tenets of meta-ideologies and jockeying civilizations, helping to discard layer after layer of entrenched misinformation and dogma.
Melikian brings a fresh, prodigiously layered voice to contemporary literature. He expands the limits of the novel as an art medium, and infuses it with extraordinary urgency and relevance in terms of sociopolitical, cultural, religious, philosophical thought as well as mythological exegesis.
Melikian is the winner of 10 literary awards, including the Written Art Award and an Honorable Mention by ForeWord Reviews Book of the Year, all between 2010 and 2012. His most recent book, EXPRAEDIUM, has garnered two highly coveted literary finalist awards in 2024 in the competitive Literary Fiction category: the Feathered Quill Book Award and the American Writing Award.
Given its prescient vision of the shape of things to come, Melikian's writing has been compared by critics to some of the masterpieces of contemporary literature, among them the politically explosive works of George Orwell, but more often with those of James Joyce. It has also been compared to Gurdjieff's 'Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson,' and even to the book of 'Revelation.' Yet Melikian’s voice remains unique and defies any easy categorization.
