Harvart —

Harvart —

Harvart (pseudonym of Harout Vartanian; also, a normal Armenian male name and having nothing to do with Harvard University!) was born on 7-Aug-1973, in Aleppo, Syria. His mother: Seta Boynarian is a painter. His father: Garbis Vartanian: a businessperson and a well-known community figure. Harvart first attended Grtasiradz School followed by AGBU's L.N.C.G. Armenian Central High School.


For Harvart, words have always been his magic; he loves wordplay, and it is a non-stopping process taking place in his brain. He is under the charm of the beauty of his mother tongue and the enormity of language as an artistic tool.


He graduated from the AUB as a Bachelor of Engineering (mechanical) in 1996. He published his first collection of poems Yeranguen Arev (Triangle Sun) in 2001 with a generous fund from Caloust Gulbenkian Foundation. He was one of the members of a group of young poets who took part in a literary workshop in Kantsasar magazine's office, under the supervision of poet Maroush. He is a member of the Syrian-Armenian Writer's Community and regularly partakes in its annual literary magazine Yert (Departure).


Recently, his second collection Lii (Filled up) was published in Antelias, Lebanon, having won the Richard and Tina Carolan Fund Award No. 7.


Harvart is an experimental poet who is never afraid of introducing fresh, avant-garde and daring works in the midst of a conservative-traditional literary hearth. At the same time, he has strong ties to classical-traditional Armenian literary legacy of poetry, to which he frequently pays tribute.


Scientific flavoring is inescapable in the works of an engineer/poet who has a love affair with mathematics.


His motto is never to cohere to a certain style, which is a style in itself.


He imposes his own world of fantasy on the real one as a means of escape to his own truth… as a way to externalize the eternal craving inside… as a means to leave a mark before the end of his days on planet earth.  


Text by Nanor Mikayelian.


Read interview here: Harvart: Poetry is written in the mind