Introducing IALA’s 2025 Israelyan Western Armenian Translation Grant Recipients

We extend our thanks to everyone who submitted their work to IALA’s 2025 Israelyan Western Armenian Translation Grant, and to judges Tamar Marie Boyadjian and Jennifer Manoukian. The grant continues to draw a remarkable range of submissions, and we’re grateful to have read such diverse and ambitious works.

This year’s grant was for a work of literature (in any literary genre) written in Western Armenian from any period. From the submissions received, two stood out to our judges equally. In light of this, and in pursuit of IALA’s commitment to make more Armenian literature available to a broader audience, we are pleased to award the grant to both works: Heranoush Arshagyan’s Lusnyag «Լուսնեակ», translated by Maral Aktokmakyan, and Souren Chekijian’s Half-Drawn «Անաւարտ դիմանկար», translated by Rupen Janbazian.

Maral Aktokmakyan is a scholar, writer and translator whose work centers on Western Armenian literature and its enduring creative legacy. She contributes to this legacy through her original writing, crafting essays, analysis and creative works that illuminate overlooked voices and literary traditions. In addition, she makes Armenian literature accessible to wider audiences through her translations (to and from Armenian, English and Turkish), preserving the nuance and richness of the original texts. Her research appears in both academic and literary venues, where she examines how literature carries memory, imagination and identity into new contexts. Through her writing, scholarship and translation efforts, Dr. Aktokmakyan is committed to expanding the visibility, vitality and future possibilities of Western Armenian literary art.

Rupen Janbazian is a writer, editor, and translator from Toronto, currently based in Yerevan. He is the editor of Torontohye, a bilingual Armenian-English community print newspaper in Toronto, and the former editor of the Armenian Weekly. He writes in both English and (Western) Armenian, and his work often explores questions of homeland-diaspora, identity, and community life between Canada and Armenia.

Janbazian has translated, co-translated, and edited a range of literary works, memoirs, articles, and short fiction. He is currently working on several original writing and translation projects. Among these is an English translation of his late friend Souren Chekijian’s novel Անաւարտ դիմանկար, for which he was awarded the 2025 IALA Israelyan Western Armenian Translation Grant. The novel is a Toronto-set Western Armenian work that examines exile, aging, desire, and the inner world of a Lebanese-Armenian painter in Canada.

He lives in Yerevan with his partner, Araz, and their dog, Srjeni.

We would also like to thank those who applied to the 2025 Israelyan English Translation Grant, and to judges Arevik Ashkharoyan and Shushan Avagyan. Based on IALA’s review criteria, the judges chose not to award the grant this year.

The 2025 Israelyan Western Armenian Translation Grant and the 2025 Israelyan English Translation Grant from the International Armenian Literary Alliance were made possible by a generous donation from Souren A. Israelyan, whose funding will ensure more Armenian literature is translated from and into English.