Hrant Ignati Matevosyan (Armenian: Հրանտ Իգնատի Մաթևոսյան, 12 February 1935 – 19 December 2002) was an Armenian writer and screenwriter. By the time of his death he was considered Armenia's "most prominent and accomplished contemporary novelist".^[1]

Biography

Hrant Matevosyan was born in 1935 in the village of Ahnidzor, now located in Armenia's Lori Province. He studied in the village school then continued his education at the Pedagogical University of Kirovakan (now Vanadzor). In 1952 he moved to Yerevan where he worked at a printing house. From 1958 until 1962, Matevosyan was a proofreader for the magazine Sovetakan Grakanutyun ("Soviet Literature") and the newspaper Grakan Tert ("Literary Newspaper").

Matevosyan started his literary career in 1961 with an essay "Ahnidzor". His first story collection Ogostos (August) was published in 1967. He headed the Writers' Union of Armenia from 1995 until 2000. His literary pieces have been translated into around 40 languages, including Russian, English, French, German, Lithuanian, Estonian, and Georgian.

Matevosyan died of cancer on 12 December 2002 at the age of 67.^[1] He is buried at Komitas Pantheon which is located in the city center of Yerevan.^[2] He had two children, a son and a daughter.

Education

• Kirovakan Pedagogical University
• 1958–1962 — Yerevan State Pedagogical Institute, Department of History and Linguistics
• 1966–1967 — Moscow Higher Course on Scriptwriting

Awards

• 1967 — "Дружба народов" (Friendship of Nations) magazine award
• 1984 — USSR State Literature Award^{[clarification needed]}
• 1984 — USSR State Literature Award^{[clarification needed]}
• 1996 — Knight of RA Mesrop Mashtots order

Works