This year, the International Armenian Literary Alliance (IALA) is excited to welcome its new class of mentees for the fourth annual mentorship program, which will run until August 31, 2024, working on fiction, poetry, nonfiction and literary translation!
IALA’s 2024 mentee cohort includes Elina Arbo, Lena Dakessian Halteh, Hasmik Djoulakian, Astghik Hairapetian, Garine Isassi, Shushanik Karapetyan, Aleen Khachatourian, Susanna Khachatryan, Norayr Manvelyan, Danielle Mikaelian, Amara Possian, Lori Yeghiayan Friedman and Melineh Yemenidjian.
To help the selected writers hone their craft, 13 incredible Armenian authors are serving as mentors — some of whom are donating their time for the third or fourth year in a row. They will read and provide feedback on their mentee’s writing and speak virtually with their mentee throughout the program to discuss their writing life, the mentee’s work and how to navigate the publishing industry. At the end of the program, IALA will host an Emerging Writers Showcase to feature the mentees’ work.
The IALA 2024 mentors are Tina Demirdjian, Ariel Djanikian, Arminé Iknadossian, Arthur Kayzakian, Dawn Anahid MacKeen, Jennifer Manoukian, Markar Melkonian, Arthur Nersesian, Jen Siraganian, Gina Srmabekian, Meline Toumani, Patricia Ward and Aida Zilelian.
“Mentors are an invaluable resource to emerging writers, not only in giving feedback on work, but in providing encouragement and guidance in what’s otherwise an often solitary practice. Persistence is vital to a writer’s journey, and we pair our mentees with authors who believe in their power to create, inspiring them to persevere through inevitable periods of self-doubt,” says IALA’s founder Olivia Katrandjian. “We hope that bonds between our mentors and mentees will last beyond the length of the program and transform into mutually supportive relationships that will only strengthen our writers and the Armenian literary community.”
The Mentees of IALA’s 2024 Mentorship Program
Elina Arbo is an artist, urbanist and technologist who is interested in converging the boundaries between electronic sound production and poetry. She is originally from Southfield, Michigan, and is currently based in Brooklyn, New York. Her written work is concerned with space, time and culture and is heavily influenced by her Assyrian heritage. Arbo is a member of the Armenian Record Archive and a 2023 Tanfis Resident Artist at Remix Culture. She studied at Columbia University and has a B.A. in urban studies and Middle Eastern studies.
Lena Dakessian Halteh is a San Francisco-based writer and multidisciplinary artist. She earned her B.A. in English literature and art history from UC Berkeley and later returned to pursue her master’s degree from UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism. In 2017, Dakessian Halteh launched Pom + Peacock, a whimsical illustration brand inspired by Armenian folk heritage. Her storytelling is rooted in Armenian culture and identity, motherhood and nearly two decades of performing with ARAX Dance. Along with mothering, she continues to pursue projects in narrative nonfiction, fiction and children’s storytelling, along with the expansion of her illustration and fine art brands.
Hasmik Djoulakian (she/her) is a first-generation Armenian educator, writer and organizer. She is currently a graduate student at UC Berkeley where she does interdisciplinary research on food sovereignty and food as cultural heritage in Armenia. She has worked in domestic and sexual violence education and advocacy and has a background in gender studies. During the years that she lived in Armenia, Djoulakian was involved in teaching, mycology research, advocacy and fundraising. In her work and writing, she is committed to transnational feminist anti-colonial solidarities.
Astghik Hairapetian is an attorney focusing on immigrants’ rights and human rights. She has a B.A. from the University of British Columbia in Spanish and international relations, and a J.D. from the UCLA School of Law with specializations in critical race studies and international and comparative law. She is based in Los Angeles.
Garinè Isassi is a recovering journalist and author of the award-winning novel Start with the Backbeat. Additional publications include the weekly humor column, Mom in the Middle; the anthologies, This is What America Looks Like and Grace in Love; and Gargoyle Online. In 2022, she won a grant from the Arts & Humanities Council of Montgomery County and was accepted into the George Washington University JMM Writing Workshop. She currently lives in Maryland, where she works full-time in marketing communications. She is the Gaithersburg Book Festival Adult Workshops chair and on the organizing committee of the Washington Writers Conference.
Shushanik Karapetyan is a New York-based writer, artist and psychotherapist born in Yerevan, Armenia. Among her unfavorable activities is writing short biography statements. Among her favorite activities are watching people in cafes and inventing stories about their lives, their day and their relationships with whoever they’re with. She enjoys accurately predicting the endings of movies, guessing who committed the murder and which character blending into the background will turn out to be important. Even more, she enjoys not knowing the answer to any of these.
Aleen Markarid Khachatourian is a multi-media Armenian artist based in Los Angeles. Her work comes through in visuals, sound, vocal activations, writing, movement and installations. She spends time studying human existence and is fascinated by our innate interconnectedness. The unwavering objective of her practice is anchoring the vision of alternative paradigms as we shift into new ways of being. Learn more at www.aleenkhachatourian.com
Susanna Khachatryan is a writer and poet who was born in Yerevan, Armenia and is now based in New York City. She received her B.A. from the University of Florida and is currently a J.D. candidate. Her poetry has been in Split Pomegranate – Sacred Seeds, a zine aimed towards raising funds for those affected by displacement from Artsakh. She is interested in themes of girlhood, otherness, diasporic identity and surrealism.
Norayr Manvelyan is a translator working with Armenian as his native language, English and Russian. Born in Yerevan, he received a B.A. in English and communications from the American University of Armenia and currently studies in the Graduate Certificate in Translation Program at AUA under the mentorship of Shushan Avagyan. Through his work, Manvelyan strives to bridge seemingly distant cultures and languages, thus enriching both by introducing unique thinking within the languages and forms of expression in literary language. Manvelyan also writes poetry and short stories in Armenian.
Danielle Mikaelian is a graduate of Columbia University with a B.A. in English Literature. At Columbia, Mikaelian was president of the Columbia Armenian Society and served as editor-in-chief of Columbia’s Women in Law and Politics Journal. Mikaelian’s poems have been published in The Armenian Weekly and HyeBred Magazine. Mikaelian is currently a student at Harvard Law School, where she is co-president of the Harvard Armenian Law Students Association and the executive vice president of operations for the Harvard Association for Law and Business. She plans to move to New York upon graduation.
Amara Possian was born into a family of Armenian Genocide survivors, journalists and artists. She lives in Toronto, in a house filled with grief, artifacts — some absurd, some very significant — and unfinished business, but with no clear instructions or people to guide the way. As a community organizer, she moves people to action through stories, helping them connect their lived experiences to the broken systems that need to change. She has trained and coached thousands of activists around the world and leads the Canada team at the global climate movement organization 350.org.
Lori Yeghiayan Friedman is a first-generation Armenian American from Los Angeles, California. Her most recent work has appeared or is forthcoming in Mizna, Atlas and Alice, Longleaf Review, Lost Balloon, Pithead Chapel, Memoir Land and the Los Angeles Times. Her creative nonfiction has twice been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She earned an MFA in Theatre from UC San Diego and attended the Tin House Winter Workshop 2023. Follow her on X/Twitter, Instagram and Bluesky: @loriyeg
Melineh Yemenidjian is a lifelong poet and studied poetry at California State University of Long Beach. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two sons. Yemenidjian is a writer, singer and artist. She has participated in workshops hosted by Cecilia Wolloch, Elline Lipkin and Donny Jackson. Her poetry has appeared on public television and in the Armenian Weekly, 99andcounting, VoiceCatcher and h-pem. Her poetic inspirations include Rumi, Mary Oliver, Emily Dickinson, Edgar Allan Poe, E. E. Cummings, Khalil Gibran, Hovannes Toumanian and Sayat Nova.
The Mentors of IALA’s 2024 Mentorship Program
Tina Demirdjian is a poet and has taught in schools, museums, businesses and libraries for 30 years in Los Angeles. She is also a culture bearer, as the founder of the Armenian Dress & Textile Project. She is the recipient of grants from the Department of Cultural Affairs, the Durfee Foundation and the California Council for the Humanities. She is published in various journals, author of IMPRINT and a contributor to Birthmark: a Bilingual Anthology of Armenian-American Poetry. Demirdjian is a board member of Brand Associates and a co-collaborator of the art history and poetry workshop, ARTful Conversations at Brand Gallery.
Ariel Djanikian is the author of two novels, The Prospectors (William Morrow, 2023), selected for the Barnes & Noble Book Club, and The Office of Mercy (Viking, 2013). She attended the University of Pennsylvania and the MFA program at the University of Michigan. She is the previous recipient of a Fulbright grant, Meijer Fellowship, Cowden Award and Hopwood Award, and her writing has appeared in Tin House, Alaska Quarterly Review, Glimmer Train, The Millions and The Rumpus. Born in Philadelphia, she currently lives near Washington, D.C., where she teaches creative writing at Georgetown University.
Arminé Iknadossian was born in Beirut, Lebanon. Her family fled to California when she was four years old to escape the civil war. After graduating from UCLA, Iknadossian earned an MFA in Creative Writing at Antioch University. The author of All That Wasted Fruit (Main Street Rag Press), Iknadossian’s work is included in XLA Anthology, Ruminate, Five South, Whale Road Review, Southern Florida Poetry Journal, MacQueen’s Quarterly and The American Journal of Poetry. She recently received a Professional Artists Grant from the Arts Council of Long Beach. She has also received fellowships from Idyllwild Arts, The Los Angeles Writing Project and Otis College of Art and Design. Iknadossian is on the Advisory Board of IALA and is also one of the Tlaquilx poets for Project 1521.
Arthur Kayzakian is the winner of the 2021 inaugural Black Lawrence Immigrant Writing Series for his collection, The Book of Redacted Paintings, which was also selected as a finalist for the 2021 Philip Levine Prize for Poetry. He is the recipient of the 2023 creative writing fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. He serves as the Poetry Chair for IALA. His work has appeared in several publications, including The Adroit Journal, Portland Review, Chicago Review, Cincinnati Review, The Southern Review, Michigan Quarterly Review and Witness Magazine.
Dawn Anahid MacKeen is a reporter and author of The Hundred-Year Walk: An Armenian Odyssey, which chronicles her grandfather’s survival of genocide. The book was a finalist for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize and received an Outstanding Book Award from the American Society of Journalists and Authors. Previously she was a staff writer at Salon, Newsday and SmartMoney: The Wall Street Journal Magazine. A long-time reporter of health and wellness, she has written for The New York Times, ELLE, Real Simple, the Los Angeles Times and elsewhere.
Jennifer Manoukian is a UC President’s Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California, Irvine. She earned her doctorate in 2023 from the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures at UCLA. Her research focuses on Ottoman Armenian language practices and ideologies in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. She is also a translator from Western Armenian and presently at work on an English translation of Yervant Odian’s memoir 12 Years Away from Constantinople, an entertaining account of the writer’s exploits and escapades across Europe and Egypt between 1896 and 1908.
Markar Melkonian is a nonfiction writer and a retired lecturer in philosophy at California State University Northridge. He received a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 1997. His books include The Philosophy and Common Sense Reader (Bloomsbury Academic, 2020), which is the first and only reader on the topic, and the well-reviewed book, Richard Rorty’s Politics: Liberalism at the End of the American Century (Humanities Press, 1999). He has written on a variety of topics, including the philosophy of death, philosophy of science and NGOs in the former Soviet Union.
Arthur Nersesian is the author of eight novels, including The Fuck-Up (Akashic, 1997 & MTV Books/Simon & Schuster, 1999), Chinese Takeout (HarperCollins), Manhattan Loverboy (Akashic), Suicide Casanova (Akashic), dogrun (MTV Books/Simon & Schuster) and Unlubricated (HarperCollins). He is also the author of East Village Tetralogy, a collection of four plays. Nersesian was the managing editor of the literary magazine The Portable Lower East Side and was an English teacher at Hostos Community College (C.U.N.Y.) in the South Bronx. He was born and raised in New York City and currently lives there.
Jen Siraganian is a writer, educator, literary organizer and former Poet Laureate of Los Gatos. A graduate of Brown University and University of Arkansas, she has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, awarded a Lucas Arts Fellowship and profiled in the San Francisco Chronicle and The Mercury News. Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Best New Poets, AGNI, Prairie Schooner, Southwest Review, Mid-American Review, Smartish Pace and other journals and anthologies. She has served as managing director for Litquake: San Francisco’s Literary Festival and taught literature and creative writing in schools and community settings for 20 years.
Gina Srmabekian’s work grapples with transgenerational trauma, memory and identity. She writes toward her own freedom and toward the freedom of all displaced peoples from Artsakh to Palestine and beyond. She writes about grief and in times of grief, because it is the most powerful articulation of love. She is the winner of Ninth Letter’s Creative Nonfiction Prize, and her work appears in DIAGRAM journal. She is a lecturer at California State University, Northridge and lives in Los Angeles with her dog Bailey.
Meline Toumani is the author of There Was and There Was Not: A Journey Through Hate and Possibility in Turkey, Armenia, and Beyond, which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. She has written for The New York Times, Harper’s, The Nation, n+1, Salon, The Boston Globe, Newsday, Travel + Leisure and many other publications. Toumani currently teaches creative nonfiction writing in the low-residency MFA program at Goucher College. She has also taught writing in the Bard Globalization and International Affairs program, helped run a reporting institute at Rostov State University in Russia and has held staff editorial positions at The New York Times, KQED Public Media and GreatSchools.
Patricia Ward is an author, journalist, historian and accomplished raconteur, a Beirut-raised Sendai Armenian by way of Philadelphia and New York, based in Pittsburgh. She hosts the podcast Friday Night History and co-hosts the podcast Cleyera: Conversations on Shinto. She is a staff writer for Unseen Japan and the author of the novels Grey Dawn: A Tale of Abolition and Union (Balance of Seven Press, 2020) and Confluence: A Person-Shaped Story (Balance of Seven Press, 2022). Follow her on Mstdn.jp, Twitch, Patreon, Facebook, Tumblr and Bluesky at @riversidewings
Aida Zilelian is a first-generation American-Armenian writer, educator and storyteller from Queens, New York. She is the author of The Legacy of Lost Things, recipient of the 2014 Tololyan Literary Award. Zilelian has been featured on NPR, The Huffington Post, Kirkus Reviews, Poets & Writers and various reading series throughout Queens and Manhattan. Her short story collection These Hills Were Meant for You was shortlisted for the 2018 Katherine Anne Porter Award. Zilelian’s most recent novel, All the Ways We Lied, is forthcoming in January 2024 (Keylight Books). She is currently working on completing her short story collection, Where There Can Be No Breath At All.
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