Hrant Matevosyan's Speech About Culture Today

Born in the village of Ahnidzor in the Alaverdi-Tumanyan district of the RA (now in the Lori Province of the RA). He studied at the village school and then continued his education at the pedagogical college of Kirovakan (now Vanadzor). In 1952 he moved to Yerevan. In 1955-58 he worked at Printing House No. 2 in Yerevan. In 1958-62 he studied at the Faculty of History and Philology of the Khachatur Abovyan Yerevan State Pedagogical Institute, and alongside his studies worked as a proofreader at the magazine “Sovetakan grakanutyun” (Soviet Literature) and at “Grakan tert” (Literary Newspaper). In 1967 he graduated from the Higher Screenwriting Courses in Moscow. In 1967 the writer's first collection of short stories, “Ogostos” (August), was published. From 1964 he was a member of the Writers' Union of Armenia, and in 1996-2000 its president. Matevosyan's works have been translated and published in Russian, English, French, German and other languages. In 1967 he received the prize of the magazine “Druzhba narodov” (Friendship of Peoples). In 1984 he received the USSR State Prize. In 1996 he was awarded the Mesrop Mashtots Order of the RA. He died in Yerevan.