Aida Zilelian Releases Novel on an Immigrant Family

BANGKOK, Dec. 11, 2014 /PRNewswire-iReach/ Aida Zilelian's The Legacy of Lost Things, a powerful and haunting first novel that delves deeply into the struggles and dysfunctions of an Armenian immigrant family living in the United States, will be the second book published by Bleeding Heart Publications, a new literary publishing house based in Southeast Asia that specializes in creative non-fiction and fiction for the U.S. market. The book will be released in all formats on March 3, 2015, and be available online and in bookstores.

Zilelian, a New York writer and English teacher, has been published in several anthologies and more than 25 literary journals, including BHP's Transfusion. Even before acceptance and publication, The Legacy of Lost Things started attracting national attention. In May 2014, it won the Minas and Kohar Tllyan Prize in Contemporary Literature, an annual award that recognizes and encourages the literary works of talented writers in North America who are of Armenian ancestry or whose work has an Armenian theme.

In The Legacy of Lost Things, Zilelian traces three generations of a family of Armenian immigrants living in Queens, New York, as they struggle with one another and against the Old World expectations of their community. When Araxi, the oldest daughter of the desperately unhappy Levon and Tamar, goes missing, the remaining family members are forced to confront their painful histories together, and the role each of them has played in driving Araxi away. Through Araxi and her family, readers are given a unique look at the generational and cultural tensions that both keep families together and tear them apart.

"I don't think the truth always comes out in stories," says Zilelian, who freely admits that her main characters are based on her family members. "You'll see that to be the case in Legacy. There's a huge truth that's never discovered. But what I do like is when characters are sitting on the truth. And you don't know what's going to happen, and you don't know what's going to come of it. That tension of . . . how are they going to deal with the truth when it does come out, or how are they going to deal with the fact that it may not come out? That tension, and creating that, is something that unconsciously I have been doing in my stories. When I look back, it's all about truths and secrets. That's why the truth and the flaws of characters fascinates me."

"Aida writes with such heart and passion, using such spare, poignant prose," says Cali Dawson, co-founder and managing director of Bleeding Heart Publications. "I remember going over this story in editing many times and it never failed to give me goose bumps and make me sigh. I was surprised that this novel hadn't been picked up for publication by the time it hit my desk. But I was not surprised that Aida was well known in her community and had published work before. She is a natural and gifted writer."

Bleeding Heart Publicationswas created in 2012 in Bangkok, Thailand, by a small, dedicated group of British and American ex-patriots led by co-founders Gordon Ross, director, and Dawson. The independent press has four books scheduled for publication in all formats in 2015 and is aggressively seeking manuscripts and short stories from new and previously published authors. Bleeding Heart Publications also will publish Transfusion, a twice-yearly literary journal featuring short stories of 5,000 words or less and poetry. The company is registered in Singapore with editorial offices in Bangkok.

Bleeding Heart Publications launched in the US with a comprehensive PR, advertising and social marketing campaign, including a full-page ad that ran in the New York Times Book Review on Sunday, Nov. 30, 2014. It also has allocated six-figure USD budgets for marketing each of its first two books.

Bleeding Heart Publications is partnering with Greenleaf Books in Austin, Texas, to provide book and cover design, production and distribution services, and marketing across all formats and platforms in the US.

For more information about Aida Zilelian and The Legacy of Lost Things, visit her author's website. For more information about Bleeding Heart Publications, its authors and submission policies, visit BHP's website.For media inquiries or to arrange an interview with BHP's principals or authors, contact Scott Busby at The Busby Group at scottb@thebusbygroup.com or 310.475.2914.

To view this video on YouTube, please visit: http://youtu.be/cFyWvRd3_Zs

Media Contact: Scott Busby, The Busby Group, 310-475-2914, scottb@thebusbygroup.com

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SOURCE Bleeding Heart Publications

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