Princess Freak

by Nancy Agabian

Poetry. Fiction. Performance Texts. Gay and Lesbian Studies. PRINCESS FREAK is the first book by Nancy Agabian, a performance artist and writer who formed the performance art-punk-folk band Guitar Boy with Ann Perich in Los Angeles in 1998. PRINCESS FREAK documents the coming-of-age of a shy, funny, bisexual Armenian-American woman who flees the small town of Walpole, Massachusetts to tell the stories of her family. Agabian's paternal grandmother was a survivor of the Armenian Genocide in Turkey in 1915, and much of the work in the book carries the impact of this devastating event. "She pays close attention to what most of us overlook--in her hands the ordinary explodes into beauty and complexity"--Holly Hughes.

121 pages, Paperback

First published February 17, 2000

Reviews

[armi nellik · Rating 5 out of 5]

i was eager to read "Princess Freak" for so long now! and only thanks to Shushan could I find & read it. i so wish it were reprinted as it is truly worth the reading experience. Agabian's writing is so brave and witty, and so sincere, all at once.

looking forward to reading "Me as Her Again" and the newly published "The Fear of Large and Small Nations."

[Ethel Margaret]

I read this last weekend because a one-sitting book. (I keep falling asleep when I pick up the Paglia.) Don't know why I thought it was a short story — it's a collection of poems and performance art monologues and the like. They do read like stories though. The territories Nancy Agabian traverses are at times humorously common to most of us (ie that awkward-cool schizophrenia of school-age social standing), and are at other times uniquely hers to disclose.

[Craven · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this hidden gem in a bookstore in San Francisco. It contains some amazing poetry and performance pieces and personal monologues about identity. It's deeply subjective, inventive and daring.