IALA celebrates NYC chapter launch and fundraiser

International Armenian Literary AllianceJuly 23, 2024Last Updated: July 23, 2024

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To mark the launch of the International Armenian Literary Alliance’s New York City Chapter, IALA is hosting a fundraiser featuring special guest and “Cat Person” author Kristen Roupenian and poet and musician Alan Semerdjian. Join IALA founder Olivia Katrandjian, New York City Chapter leader Aida Zilelian and board members for an evening of music and literature!

The event will take place on Thursday, August 8, 2024, from 5:30-7:30 p.m. Eastern time at Eversheds Sutherland at Bryant Park. The address is The Grace Building, 40th floor, 1114 6th Ave., New York, NY 10036. Click here to RSVP by August 1.

Please support IALA by donating through Paypal Giving and help them raise $15,000. Suggested donations are:

$5,000 to enable the launch of a Yerevan residency for writers and translators
$2,500 to provide a grant for an Armenian writer to develop a new work of literature
$1,000 for professional poets to facilitate workshops with aspiring writers in high schools
$500 to host a literary event promoting our writers
$100 to support the participation of the next emerging Armenian writer in our programming
$50 to enable an aspiring writer to have a free or discounted place in a workshop
$25 to promote a writer’s publication.

“The NYC Chapter will give members the opportunity to meet and connect for cultural events in the city as well as share their own literary events for members to attend,” says Zilelian, the chapter leader and award-winning author of All the Ways We Lied. “Members are also encouraged to share their writing in small group workshops for feedback and support. Overall, the NYC Chapter will serve as a way for writers to build community and support each other.”

As Peter Balakian wrote, “Investing in the arts is investing in the core continuity of Armenian civilization.” A people is defined by its stories, and by facilitating a resurgence of Armenian literature — literature written by, for or about Armenians — we are proactively defining our legacy.

Kristen Roupenian is the author of the viral short story “Cat Person,” which appeared in the New Yorker in 2017. The New York Times Book Review called her debut collection, Cat Person and Other Stories, “exciting, smart, perceptive, weird and dark,” and said that it “comes from one of those brains that feel out-of-this-world-brilliant and also completely askew.” Roupenian also wrote the original story for the A24 smash hit Bodies Bodies Bodies, and has several other film and television projects in development. She is currently at work on a novel.

IALA Advisory Board member Alan Semerdjian will perform a short acoustic set of songs for the occasion. Semerdjian is a writer, musician and educator. His works include In the Architecture of Bone (GenPop Books, 2009), The Serpent and The Crane (a collaboration of poetry and music with Aram Bajakian) and several collections of critically-acclaimed albums covering a wide range of genres from singer-songwriter to free jazz and alternative rock. He has taught English and creative writing in public education for 25 years and is currently the poet laureate of New York’s Nassau County.

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International Armenian Literary Alliance

The International Armenian Literary Alliance is a nonprofit organization launched in 2021 that supports and celebrates writers by fostering the development and distribution of Armenian literature in the English language. A network of Armenian writers and their champions, IALA gives Armenian writers a voice in the literary world through creative, professional, and scholarly advocacy.