Azat Angum is the first translation into Armenian of Leonrado P. Alishan's collected short stories, published earlier under the title "Free Fall," by this press. It contains forty-eight short stories and an introduction by the translator, Gourgen Arzoumanian.

The reader will find amazing how fiction and truth are intermingled harmoniously. The first story of the book is an introductory story where the legendary bird, simorgh, gives magical seeds to the narrator that bring forth the stories he writes. Meanwhile, the last story finds the narrator receiving rejection letters from publishers simply because no one was interested in his strange Armenian-Iranian-American poems.

In between the first and last stories, what comes of those seeds is the fruit of exile and identity crises. "The Curse," a short story, portrays the image of an Iranian poet in exile who loses his language and becomes isolated. On one occasion, when the poet tries to communicate with his wife, she responds, "What are these jeek jeek [chirping] noises you're making? Why don't you talk?"

For some, the rejected poems are perhaps the same as the jeek jeek noises. However, the poet finds an audience who would understand him – the community of the sparrows.

It is a fact that a new language and culture flourish in the Diaspora where duality and, in some cases, triplication is part of daily life. Being an Iranian-Armenian, Leonardo Alishan experienced both Diasporas, and this book is the reflection of that existence, which many people can relate to themselves.

ABOUT THE TRANSLATOR:
Born in Salmas, Iran, poet and writer Gourgen Arzoumanian is author of two Armenian books of poetry: "Apricot Shine" (1980) and "In The Intersections" (1984). He moved to United States in 1988. Between 1995 and 2000, he was the editor of “Open Letter,” a Glendale-based Armenian Literary journal; he founded and organized the “Literary Corner” a series of literary gatherings sponsored by Glendale Public Library. He is also editor of Birthmark, a bilingual anthology of Armenian- American Poetry published in 1999. Arzoumanian’s poetry, short stories, book critiques and translations have appeared in numerous Armenian literary magazines.

ABOUT THE COVER
Original art by Vachig Der Sarkesian