We need to get rid of literary waste, says Armenian writer

Ahead of new elections to the Writers’ Union of Armenia, Tert.am has interviewed writer, translator and publicist Samvel Mkrtchyan who shared his concerns over the existing stagnation in the literary circles and his expectation of the new president.

Mr Mkrtchyan, the date of the Writers’ Union special congress - which is to elect a president – is not known yet, but there is already the traditional atmosphere observed from election to election, with names being mentioned and passions running high (in contrast to the post-election years, when the Writers’ Union is silent). What features would you like the new president to have?

I would like the Writers’ Union president to try to change something. To change what we see today, and not only today. The Writers’ Union - at least for myself - is a kind of unnecessary institution, not a union which has to serve writers and especially literature, and assist first of all in the publishing of books. To have such a union, the president has to make fundamental changes. But to be frank, I have no idea how the questions accumulated over the course of years are going to find a solution.

For many years, people who haven’t written a single story have joined the Writers’ Union. I know a person, for instance, who is half-literate. Imagine a member of the Composers’ Union not having a good ear for music or not knowing the notes well.

The president has to clear the Writers’ Union, which has turned into something like an Augean stable today. Only the talented, those who serve the literature, have to stay.

I think the president has to be an orderly normal person to make the Writers’ Union serve literature as an independent instutitution, instead of expressing the opinion of the authorities and [President] Serzh Sargsyan.

What does the Writers’ Union president have to do to clean the Augean stables? Does he or she have to sack [those members]? You know better than anyone that many of our writers today think of themselves as …

Yes, I know. All consider themselves a genius. To be frank, I don’t know of such a special method, but call it a special commission or an auditing, there has to be something like that to clean the system. The Writers’ Union today has a group [of people] who produce literary waste, as well as people whose literature falls short of many literary criteria in half of the cases. Today, anyone can write a book and later search and find a couple of writers for a recommendation to become a Writers’ Union member.

I don't mind if everybody’s literary heritage, including mine, is revised. But it is necessary to get rid of this literary waste.

You spoke about the publication of books. Do you know how much and what quality of literature the Writers’ Union publishes annually?

In the recent years, the Writers’ Union acquired a print house thanks to the efforts of [late President] Levon Ananyan. But the books published are very poor, in my opinion. What I have seen is very poor in terms of the printing quality, not to speak of the literary criteria.