IALA, NAASR and the Zohrab Center host Literary Lights 2025: a panel discussion with “Wasafiri” Armenian issue editors and contributors
What is home to Armenians in literature? Which Armenians, you may ask? How does the idea of homeland manifest in the latest English-language literary anthology of Armenian writing? Where can the multitudes of symbolic, remembered and actual homelands of Armenians be found?
Join the contributors of Wasafiri Magazine’s best selling issue to date, “Armenia(n)s – Elevation,” for a thought-provoking conversation exploring these questions. The panel, chaired by the issue’s co-editors, Tatevik Ayvazyan and Naneh V. Hovhannisyan, will feature Wasafiri’s editor-in-chief and publishing director, Sana Goyal. Bringing together a poet, a comparative literature scholar, a nonfiction writer and an ethnomusicologist, this discussion will delve into reading, writing, narratives and hopes.
This virtual event, cosponsored by Wasafiri Magazine, is part of Literary Lights 2025, an ongoing reading series hosted by the International Armenian Literary Alliance, the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research, and the Krikor and Clara Zohrab Information Center. The discussion will take place on March 22, 2025 at 9:00 a.m. Pacific | 12:00 p.m. Eastern | 8:00 p.m. AMT. Editors Tatevik Ayvazyan and Naneh Hovhannisyan will be joined by contributors Sylvia Alajaji, Armen Davoudian, Myrna Douzjian and Shogher Sargsyan in an engaging panel discussion. Free admission. Register here.
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.
Wasafiri and “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.”
Sana Goyal is the editor and publishing director of Wasafiri. She has an M.A. in Postcolonial Studies and a Ph.D. in literary prizes from SOAS, University of London. Her reviews have appeared in The Guardian, Financial Times, Times Literary Supplement and elsewhere. She is a judge for the 2025 International Booker Prize.
“Armenia(n)s: Elevation” Contributors
Sylvia Angelique Alajaji is the author of Music and the Armenian Diaspora: Searching for Home in Exile. She was most recently professor of music at Franklin & Marshall College and is currently serving as associate director of the CNRS-UChicago International Research Center for Fundamental Discovery at the University of Chicago.
Armen Davoudian is the author of the The Palace of Forty Pillars (Tin House, U.S.; Corsair, U.K.), longlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Award in Poetry, and the translator, from Persian, of Hopscotch by Fatemeh Shams (Ugly Duckling Presse). He grew up in Isfahan, Iran, and is a Ph.D. candidate in English at Stanford University. Learn more at www.armendavoudian.com
Myrna Douzjian is continuing lecturer in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at UC Berkeley. Her research and critical articles on Armenian literature, film and drama have been published in academic volumes and literary periodicals, while her translations of Armenian plays and poetry have been staged in Los Angeles.
Shogher Sargsyan is a journalist, TV host and actress from Stepanakert. During the blockade of Artsakh, she co-created and hosted the Inadu podcast with her friend Nina Shahverdyan. Following the forced expulsion of Armenians from Artsakh in 2023, she resides in Yerevan, where she continues her work in Armenian theater and takes her first steps in literature.
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