LEMKIN AWARD TO PETER BALAKIAN

The Lemkin Award Committee of the Institute for the Study of Genocide is proud to announce presentation of the third biennial Lemkin Award to Peter Balakian for

THE BURNING TIGRIS: THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE AND AMERICA��S RESPONSE��䉥�a history of international human rights and forgotten heroes��

(Harper Collins 2003).

The Lemkin Award honors Raphael Lemkin, the legal scholar who coined the term ��genocide�� and lobbied for the United Nations Convention on The Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1951) and recognizes the best scholarly book in English in the preceding two years on explanation of genocide, mass killings, gross human rights violations and the prevention of such crimes. The Lemkin Committee read 27 books which fit its criteria that were published in 2003 and 2004. Previous winners of the Lemkin Award are Alison Des Forges for LEAVE NONE TO TELL THE STORY: GENOCIDE IN RWANDA (Human Rights Watch, 1999)��Des Forges was subsequently appointed a MacArthur Fellow��and Samantha Power for ��A PROBLEM FROM HELL��AMERICA AND THE AGE OF GENOCIDE (Basic Books, 2002), later the winner of a Pulitzer Prize.

Peter Balakian is the author of seven other books including the BLACK DOG OF FATE, which won the 1998 PEN/Allbrand Prize for memoir. BURNING TIGRIS was a NEW YORK TIMES bestseller and a national bestseller, included in the NEW YORK TIMES�� listing of Notable Books for 2003. He is the recipient of many honors and awards including a Guggenheim fellowship and National Endowment for the Arts grant. He is the Donald M. and Constance H. Rebar Professor of the Humanities and Professor of English at Colgate University.

The Lemkin presentation and talk by Peter Balakian will take place at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, 445 WEST 59 STREET, 1311 North Hall, at 3-5PM, Friday, November 11. It will be preceded by a reception for Peter Balakian from 2-3PM there.

Space is limited; please RSVP by e-mail to be put on a pre-registered list; e-mail Helen Fein, Executive Director, Institute for the Study of Genocide, helenfein@comcast.net