Growing up, Dawn MacKeen heard from her mother how her grandfather Stepan miraculously escaped from the Turks during the Armenian genocide of 1915, when more than one million people-half the Armenian population-were killed. 'An emotionally poignant work' of survival during the Armenian genocide (Aline Ohanesian, author of Orhan's Inheritance ). Share in the joy of providing home libraries – give the gift of reading, and donate to Literacy Partners today.A Dayton Literary Peace Prize Finalist and New York Post Must-Read. Through Books of Their Own, Literacy Partners provides brand new books to our students and their families.

I wouldn’t be who I am without books.Īs the summer heats up, we’ve been busy reading – check out our staff picks: Reading and access to books has defined my passions – a love for writing, fantasy, history, magic, and so much more. What does literacy mean to you – why is it important? Reading outdoors is one of my favorite things to do. I love the feeling of sunlight on my skin, the breeze stirring the grass, and with my mind taking in new characters, quests, and ideas.

I have many memories of sitting outside, a pile of books larger than me, and letting myself fall into new and mysterious worlds. Growing up, I was constantly making trips to the library. What is your favorite memory of summer reading growing up – do you have an anecdote to share? The Armenian diaspora is huge and we all have different stories and experiences – but we survived. Every Armenian family has a genocide story, and we are here because some of our ancestors survived. I also appreciated the humanization of the genocide victims – learning who they were as people before their cultural and religious identity became the only thing they were identified by and then targeted for. Growing up in the US, I have always been fascinated by how many Armenians live out of the country – families and friends scattered across the world because of our history. These two passages really struck a chord with me. That’s what a holocaust does – it erases.” I hadn’t thought of him – or anyone else who endured a genocide – as having a personality, as being funny and knocking back stiff drinks with pals. Somehow, I had reduced him to one dimension: he was a survivor. “All I knew of him was his struggle, his pain. Stateless, some of them drifting like embers after a fire, the rest just ashes.” Entire families had been lost or severed from one another. After learning more about my family history, I found it heartbreaking. “My mother’s surviving aunts and uncles lived in Turkey, France, and the United States – something I had previously thought was a little glamorous. What is your favorite quote from this book? Why? It’s very important to me to know my history and heritage. The book is about the Armenian genocide and I am reading a bunch of books by Armenian authors to reconnect with my roots before my trip to Armenia in August. I’ve been binging a lot of mystery and fantasy books back to back, and wanted to switch up genres. The Hundred Year Walk: An Armenian Odyssey by Dawn Anahid MacKeen Gohar Chichian, Senior Manager of Development and Communications The book has helped Gohar reconnect with her heritage, and prepared her for her trip back to Armenia! Gohar’s summer book pick is The Hundred Year Walk: An Armenian Odyssey by Dawn Anahid MacKeen.

A hundred year walk