Previously she was a staff writer at Salon, Newsday, and SmartMoney. Her work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, ELLE, the Los Angeles Times, The Sunday Times Magazine, and elsewhere. Based on a decade of research, the book was a finalist for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, and awarded best biography from the American Society of Journalists and Authors. Their shared story is a testament to family, to home, and to the power of the human spirit to transcend the barriers of religion, ethnicity, and even time itself.ĭawn Anahid MacKeen is the author of "The Hundred-Year Walk: An Armenian Odyssey," which is about her grandfather’s survival of genocide, and her quest to tell his story. In "The Hundred-Year Walk," MacKeen alternates between Stepan’s courageous account, drawn from his long-lost journals, and her own story as she attempts to retrace his steps, setting out alone to Turkey and Syria, shadowing her resourceful, resilient grandfather across a landscape still rife with tension.ĭawn uses his journals to guide her to the places he was imperiled and imprisoned and the desert he crossed with only half a bottle of water. Growing up, Dawn MacKeen heard from her mother how her grandfather Stepan miraculously escaped from the Turks during the Armenian genocide of 1915, when more than one million people-half the Armenian population-were killed. Now the breweries, gasworks, ropeworks, woodyards and basket weavers have all gone.Īnd have we also lost something with the absence of children playing games in the street in the lower photograph? How oafish and vulgar those cars look! And yet, a surprising number of houses survive from a century ago.* Use this link to join our virtual program: Throughout this story, MacKeen did an incredible job in her attention to detail and supporting research in putting together the most accurate representation of her.
In The Hundred-Year Walk, MacKeen alternates between Stepan’s courageous. Like many Genocide novels, The Hundred Year Walk describes the shocking and incredible journey of suffering and survival from the eyes of an Armenian during these dark times.
Growing up, Dawn MacKeen heard from her mother how her grandfather Stepan miraculously escaped from the Turks during the Armenian genocide of 1915, when more than one million peoplehalf the Armenian populationwere killed. Dawn MacKeen is a former senior writer for Salon, and the author of My father was born on Willow Walk in the Waterside district of Ely in 1935. The hope is that we will listen to our ghosts, we will listen to MacKeens story, and we will be inspired to stop history from repeating itself. A hundred years separate the two photographs here. The Hundred Year Walk is an offering that speaks to the Armenian Genocide, what is happening in modern-day Syria, and the silencing of suffering all around the globe.