IALA Holiday Book Guide 2023
- From recent releases to literature in translation
Our 2023 holiday book guide includes exciting new titles that will make wonderful gifts for you and your loved ones. From recent and forthcoming releases to literature in translation, there’s a book for everyone on this list!
You can now browse through our holiday book guide on Bookshop! By purchasing from our bookstore, you would be directly donating to support our programming!
BÁBO by Astrid Kamalyan and Anait Semirdzhyan
Join Tato and her family as they help Bábo (grandmother) on rug-washing day in this sweet and playful picture book tribute to Armenian cultural traditions — a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection that has earned starred reviews from Kirkus, The Horn Book, and Publishers Weekly.
Available at: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Penguin Random House | Bookshop.org | Abril Books. Learn more here.
The Prospectors by Ariel Djanikian
Selected by Barnes & Noble as their book-of-the-month for October, Ariel Djanikian’s newly-released The Prospectors is a sweeping rags-to-riches story of survival and greed across American history following a family transformed by the Klondike Gold Rush.
Available at: Bookshop.org | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | HarperCollins | Kobo. Learn more here.
The Fear of Large and Small Nations by Nancy Agabian
PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction finalist, The Fear of Large and Small Nations is a contemporary story of an abusive relationship between a queer couple, set between Armenia and the diaspora.
Available at: Bookshop.org | Barnes & Noble | Amazon | NAASR Bookstore. Agabian is donating November profits to Women’s Support Center. Learn more about the book here.
The Book of Redacted Paintings by Arthur Kayzakian
The Book of Redacted Paintings exquisitely intertwines poetry, prose, and visual art, takes place in the present day yet alludes to the Iranian Revolution.
Available at: Black Lawrence Press | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org | Abril Books. Learn more here.
All the Ways We Lied by Aida Zilelian
Tololyan Literary Prize recipient Aida Zilelian explores the reality of love and loss in the everyday lives of a modern-day Armenian family in her forthcoming novel, All the Ways We Lied.
Preorder at: Barnes & Noble | Amazon | Kew & Willow Books | Astoria Bookshop. Learn more here.
The Institute for Other Intelligences by Mashinka Firunts Hakopian
The Institute for Other Intelligences chronicles the transcription of a symposium at a fictive institute where machine intelligences convene annually for lectures and training on algorithmic justice.
Available at: Barnes & Noble | Amazon | NAASR Bookstore | X Artists’ Books. Learn more here.
A Book, Untitled by Shushan Avagyan, translated by Deanna Cachoian-Schanz
A Book, Untitled is about an imagined encounter between two early twentieth-century feminist writers, Zabel Yesayan and Shushanik Kurghinian, juxtaposed with a conversation between the author and a friend.
Available at: Awst Press | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Abril Books. Learn more here.
Wry, tender, and formally innovative, Armen Davoudian’s debut forthcoming poetry collection, The Palace of Forty Pillars, tells the story of a self estranged from the world around him as a gay adolescent, an Armenian in Iran, and an immigrant in America.
Preorder at: Tin House | Powell’s | Bookshop | Amazon. Learn more here.
by Leila Boukarim and Sona Avedikian
What is it like to walk away from your home? To leave behind everything and everyone you’ve ever known? Poetic, sensitive, and based on a true family history, this picture book follows a young Armenian boy from the day he sets out to find refuge to the day he finally finds the courage to share his story.
Preorder at: Bookshop | Barnes & Noble | Amazon. Learn more here.
Trashland by , translated by
Once a muckraking journalist nicknamed “The Hedgehog,” Gam fled a life-shattering earthquake in his home city of Gyumri into a life of subsistence, living in a small hut near the garbage dump. Just as Junot Diaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao takes a candid look at the Dominican community in New York City and the Dominican Republic, Trashland offers an insider’s view of an often-insular society.
Available at: Barnes & Noble | Amazon | NAASR Bookstore | Bookshop | Abril Books.
by Naira Kuzmich
What’s the difference between leaving the motherland and leaving the literal mother? When does the journey toward self-possession become something closer to self-exile? Living daily in the tension between assimilation, disillusionment, and desire, the Armenian-American protagonists of In Everything I See Your Hand struggle with the belief that their futures are already decided, futures that can only be escaped through death or departure―if they can be escaped at all.
Available at: Barnes & Noble | Amazon.
by allen vartanian
In this collection of original poetry, Armenian-American poet allen vartanian (@cdlv) masterfully weaves together themes of connection, manipulation, self-love, and autonomy, inviting readers to reflect and reclaim their own narratives.
Available at: Barnes & Noble | Amazon.
Who She Left Behind by Victoria Atamian Waterman
A story revolving around themes of survival, motherhood and love, Who She Left Behind is a captivating historical fiction novel that spans multiple generations—from the declining days of the Ottoman Empire in Turkey to Armenian communities in Rhode Island and Massachusetts during the 1990s—and delves into the emotional lives of its characters.
Available at: Bookshop | Barnes & Noble | Amazon. Learn more here.
He Calls Me Redeemed by Arman Kaymakcian
In He Calls Me Redeemed, Arman Kaymakcian explores his past at the intersection of faith, addiction, abuse, family, culture and death. He walks the reader through his life, typical in some ways but painted with a unique touch of Armenian culture and the harsh realities of sexual abuse in his drug-rich Jersey Shore community.
Available at: Barnes & Noble | Amazon. Learn more here.
Forbidden Homeland by Katia Tavitian Karageuzian
2023 Literary Titan Gold Book Award recipient, Forbidden Homeland: Story of a Diasporan is Katia Tavitian Karageuzian’s debut memoir, in which she weaves her personal diasporic accounts to the events that have been shaping the Armenian reality in the past thirty years.
Available at: Bookshop | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Abril Books. Learn more here.
The Honey Jar by Joan Schoettler
Told in verse, suspenseful and heart-rending, The Honey Jar: An Armenian’s Escape to Freedom depicts a journey from desperation to freedom, anchored in eight-year-old Bedros’ promise to return to his native land and to find the one he left behind. His story, inspired by true events, will touch the hearts of families everywhere.
Available at: Abril Books | Barnes & Noble | Amazon. Learn more here.
Life in the Armenian Community of Aleppo by Manoug Hagopian
Manoug Hagopian’s memoir in stories, Life in the Armenian Community of Aleppo, describes Armenians’ joys, griefs, and daily efforts to survive after they fled the 1915 massacres in a land that accepted them with open arms.
Available at: Amazon. Original publication (in Western Armenian): Barnes & Noble. Learn more here.
Karabakh Diary by Alan Whitehorn, translated by Hermine Navasardyan
Spanning the years from 2005 to 2021 and focus on the lead up to, turbulent times during, and the post-war period of the 2020 Karabakh War, this bilingual collection of personal and political poems expresses in diary form the author’s reflections on the existential threats and crises confronting Armenians in the contemporary era.
Available at: Zangak Bookstore and Artbrdige Bookstore (Armenia). Learn more here.
Kiki Coto by Edward Avanessy
In Kiki Coto, prepare to be swept away on a heart-pounding action-adventure that not only thrills but also enlightens with its captivating spiritual journey. As the boundary between the physical and spiritual realms blurs, readers are beckoned into a tale that challenges perceptions and explores the mysteries of life’s eternal nature.
Available at: Bookshop | Amazon | Barnes & Noble. Learn more here.
Lucy Goes to The Gentle Barn by Tenny Minassian and Agavny Vardanyan
Based on a true story, Lucy Goes to The Gentle Barn follows Lucy, a rescue poodle-mix, as she goes on another adventure with her mom. This time they visit an animal sanctuary called The Gentle Barn!
Available at: Bookshop | Abril Bookstore | Barnes & Noble | Amazon | Walmart. Learn more here.
For more Armenian books written in English, check out our holiday book guides for 2021 and 2022!