The Palace of Forty Pillars

‘Musical and formally inventive, Davoudian is an enchanting and intriguing new voice’ * Sunday Times *A gifted new voice … Historically and symbolically literate, this is a book of poems which “settled for what was difficult” and succeeded impressively in making the challenges sing – Declan Ryan * Irish Times *In this Heaney-esque debut book, Davoudian looks back on his childhood in Iran and Armenian family’s history from the distance of his life in America. It’s reflective in everysense, full of mirrors and doubles, recurring images (swans abound) and unusualperspectives; “all is dual”, he writes. It’s also the smartest use of metre and rhyme you’llsee today * Telegraph, Hottest Books of 2024 *‘Davoudian is a dazzling rhymer … But [his] technique does not come at the expense of heart: this is a book fraught with love and desire, nostalgia and tenderness… Davoudian already has a master’s touch’ * AE Stallings *‘Davoudian’s is an impressive first collection, one of the best I’ve read in the last few years’ * Victoria Moul *

Armen Davoudian has an MFA from Johns Hopkins University and is currently a PhD candidate in English at Stanford University. His poems and translations from Persian appear in Poetry magazine, the Hopkins Review, the Yale Review, and elsewhere. His chapbook, Swan Song, won the Frost Place Competition. Armen grew up in Isfahan, Iran, and lives in California.

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