Literary Lights is a monthly reading series organized by IALA, the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research, and the Krikor and Clara Zohrab Information Center. Each event—held online or in-person—will feature a writer reading from their work, followed by a discussion with an interviewer and audience members. Keep an eye on our website and socials for the exact dates of each event. Read along with the series by purchasing titles from the IALA Bookstore powered by Bookshop.

From poetry and fiction to thought-provoking book reviews, art, life writing and in-depth interviews, Wasafiri’s “Armenia(n)s – Elevation” is a rich tapestry of modern Armenian voices. It offers readers a profound and eloquent exploration of the human condition through meditations on the Armenian language, culture, and identity. Featured contributors include award-winners such as Chris Bohjalian, Nancy Kricorian, and many more. Learn more about this landmark edition.

Armenia(n)s: Elevation Editors

Tatevik Ayvazyan is a London-based writer and producer with Rebel Republic Films and the former director of the Armenian Institute. She is the producer of the award-winning poetry film, Taniel, and is currently adapting Iris Murdoch’s The Italian Girl. She’s a board member of the International Armenian Literary Alliance, focusing on translation projects, and of Azad Archives.

Naneh Hovhannisyan is an Armenian-born researcher and writer of book reviews and personal essays. She is interested in history, memory, and belonging. Her work has been published by EVN Report, WritersMosaic, the Cambridge Review of Books, and others. Naneh co-edited the 2024 special issue of Wasafiri Magazine, Armenia(n)s: Elevation.

Armenia(n)s: Elevation Contributors

Dr. Jesse Arlen is the director of the Krikor and Clara Zohrab Information Center at the Eastern Diocese of the Armenian Church of America. His research focuses on medieval literature and religious culture. He is also a published writer and translator of Western Armenian poetry and critical and creative prose.

Eddie Arnavoudian has been passionate about literature, history, and politics, since the mid-1990s when he remastered the wonderful Armenian language. Across two decades and more, he has contributed comments and evaluations that have been published on The Critical Corner which is an integral element of the hugely valuable Groong/Armenian News Network founded and edited by Asbed Bedrossian.

Olivia Katrandjian is a writer and journalist published in The New York Times, Oxford Review of Books, Ms., and elsewhere. Her fiction was listed for Luxembourg’s National Literary Prize, the Bristol and Cambridge Short Story Prizes, and the Oxford-BNU Award. She is the founder of the International Armenian Literary Alliance.

Lola Koundakjian is a writer, editor and translator, who honed her skills at the Ararat Literary Quarterly. She runs the Dead Armenian Poet’s Society, and the online Armenian Poetry Project. Her book The Moon in the Cusp of my Hand won the Minas and Kohar Tololyan Prize in Contemporary Literature.

Nancy Kricorian is the author of four novels about post-genocide Armenian diaspora experience, including her forthcoming book The Burning Heart of the World, which focuses on an Armenian family in Beirut during the Lebanese Civil War. Her poems and essays have been published in The Los Angeles Review of Books Quarterly, The Markaz Review, Parnassus, Wasafiri, Minnesota Review, and other journals. She lives in New York.

Christopher Millis’s books of poetry include The Handsome Shackles and The Dark of the Sun, translations from the Italian of Umberto Saba. The former art critic for The Boston Phoenix, his Off Broadway productions include the libretto for Jean Erdman’s dance opera The Shining House and Garbage Boy.

Margarit Ordukhanyan is a New York-based scholar and translator of poetry and prose from her native Armenian and Russian into English. Ordukhanyan is 2023 National Endowment of the Arts Translation Fellow, and one of the two recipients of 2023 Israelyan Translation Grant from International Armenian Literary Alliance.

Thomas Toghramadjian is a translator, deacon, and scholar of modern Armenian literature with degrees from Boston College and Yerevan State University.  He received a 2023 IALA Israelyan Translation Grant for his forthcoming English translation of Yeghishe Charents’s novel Land of Nayiri. A repatriate to Armenia since 2019, he currently lives in Lori Province.

Taline Voskeritchian’s prose and translations have appeared in the London Review of Books, The Nation, Bookforum, Words without Borders, Journal of Palestine Studies, The Markaz Review, Jadaliyya, and other publications. She has taught university courses in Boston and Yerevan, and conducted translation seminars for the Palestine Festival of Literature.

Guest Reader

Hovsep Markarian is a cultural manager, language teacher, and storyteller with a background of over ten years in diverse nonprofit managerial roles as well as journalism. He is passionate about and has experience in multiple art forms including writing, standup, music and theater. He serves as the executive director of the International Armenian Literary Alliance.