Nature, poetry and environmental collapse with Moheb Soliman
The International Armenian Literary Alliance (IALA), Mizna and the Asian American Writers’ Workshop (AAWW) invite you to the third installment of the Sarkisian Workshop Series: Nature, Poetry and Environmental Collapse with Moheb Soliman. The virtual workshop will take place on May 31, 2026, at 9:00 a.m. Pacific | 12:00 p.m. Eastern | 8:00 p.m. Armenia time.
Poetry has a singular capacity to capture our obscure relationship with the non-human living world. But how can this adapt to a world fraught with threats of environmental collapse? Through ecopoetic texts and writers as well as Moheb’s own work about the Great Lakes region, this workshop will explore how contemporary nature writers can navigate between romanticizing the natural sphere, eulogizing its death and poeticizing environmentalism. Together, we will discuss and write about our experiences embodying and rendering natural-cultural spaces and reckon with human desire, humility, alienation and ambivalence in this era where nature poetry and climate change must co-exist.
Moheb Soliman is an interdisciplinary poet from Egypt and the Midwest who has presented work in literary, art and public spaces around North America and abroad with support from diverse institutions. His debut poetry collection HOMES was a finalist for the Minnesota Book Award and others, and explores nature, modernity, identity, belonging and sublimity through the site of the Great Lakes bioregion/borderland. He attended the New School for Social Research and University of Toronto and lives in Minneapolis, where he is executive editor and literary program director for the Arab American arts organization Mizna.
Ticket price: $20 for each individual workshop. Please reach out to info@armenianliterary.org if you are interested in joining but the registration price is prohibitive.
IALA programs are shared spaces for creative work, dialogue and learning. We invite all participants to contribute to an environment of respect, care and thoughtful engagement. IALA reflects the multiplicity of identities in the Armenian community and beyond, and we do not tolerate any offensive behavior regarding gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, religious belief, national origin, socio-economic class, educational background, personal style/appearance, citizenship and immigration status or political affiliation. Participants whose behavior disrupts programs or harms the community may be asked to leave the space or restricted from future participation.
The Sarkisian Workshop Series 2026: Can Storytelling Save Us? is brought to you by IALA, Mizna and AAWW. Funded by the Sarkisian Foundation for the Arts and Engineering, the series offers six writing workshops that will include literary analysis and generative writing exercises. Designed to bring together writers from diverse backgrounds, these workshops will encourage writers to engage with the pressing issues of our time.
Explore the full series and read along by purchasing titles at IALA’s Bookshop.org storefront.
