Introducing IALA’s 2025 Creative Writing Grant Recipient and Runners Up
We extend our thanks to everyone who submitted their work to IALA’s 2025 Creative Writing Grant, and to Chris McCormick for judging it. Now in its fourth year, the grant continues to draw a remarkable range of submissions, and we’re grateful to have read such diverse and ambitious works of fiction.
We’re delighted to announce that this year’s grant has been awarded to Nevdon Jamgochian for his work-in-progress, Intercessoress of Snakes: Volume I of the Autobiography of Stephan Bagradian 1902–1929. Jamgochian will receive a $2,500 grant to support the completion of his novel, which this year’s judge, Chris McCormick, praised as “brilliant and original,” noting that “the voice leaps off the page with its intelligence and humor, and to write this well about what the world might have been requires a deep understanding of what the world is.”
Intercessoress of Snakes constructs a counter-historical tapestry, premised on the question of what the world would look like if the Armenian Genocide never happened. The narrative’s conceptual genesis is rooted in the implications of Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code—the statute criminalizing “insulting Turkishness” through genocide recognition. The book imagines an alternate twentieth century where the Armenian intellectual and artistic milieu survived, recentering the axis of modernism within Anatolia.
Nevdon Jamgochian is an artist whose practice in painting, film, and text explores cross-cultural narratives, memory, and heritage. He holds an MFA in Painting with Outstanding Achievement from SCAD. His work has been exhibited internationally for over two decades, including at the Museum of Modern Art in Yerevan. His film was featured at Lincoln Center’s Armenians in Film series, and his writing has appeared in Hyperallergic and the Journal of the Society for Armenian Studies, among other publications.
Nevdon maintains a practice as an icon painter for the Armenian Apostolic Church while teaching fine art in West Africa, Europe, South and Southeast Asia, and currently East Asia. His current projects include oil paintings, short stories, a television series, and a traveling exhibit that critically examines Turkish and Western perspectives of Anatolia. Nevdon can be found at @nevdon.bsky.social and @nevdonjamgochian on Instagram.
This year, our judge decided to also name two runners up, applicants who hold great promise: Karen Babayan and Lena Dakessian Halteh.
Karen Babayan is a multidisciplinary artist, writer and playwright. Born in Iran, she moved to the UK in 1978. Her well-established art career includes exhibitions in the UK, Armenia, Canada and Japan, and work in many public and private collections.
Her first book of short stories on the Armenians of Iran, Blood Oranges Dipped in Salt (2012) was born out of a PhD in Contemporary Art Practice. Her first full-length theatre production based on her second book of short stories, Swallows and Armenians (2019) toured venues in London and Leeds this year. It champions the Anglo-Armenian family from Aleppo who inspired English author Arthur Ransome to write a classic of children’s literature.
She is currently working on her first novel, set in historic Western Armenia/Eastern Turkey. Babayan lives near the English Lake District. Learn more at karenbabayan.com or on Substack at @karenbabayan and @babayan1654 on Instagram.
Lena Dakessian Halteh is a San Francisco–based writer, visual artist, and storyteller. She holds a B.A. in English Literature and Art History and an M.J. in Journalism, all from the University of California, Berkeley. Her writing and artwork have appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, Al Jazeera’s AJ+, Chariot Press, Hyebred Magazine, and Noor Magazine. She is a former multimedia reporting fellow at Al Jazeera’s AJ+. In 2019, she founded Pom + Peacock, an art and paper goods company showcasing her original fine art and illustrations. A dedicated performer and arts educator, Lena has trained and performed with ARAX Dance for two decades and now serves as the program’s Artistic Director. She is currently at work on her first novel. Alongside raising her three little ones, Lena continues to pursue storytelling across a range of literary and visual arts media. Learn more at lenahalteh.com or on Instagram at @lenahalteh.
The International Armenian Literary Alliance’s Creative Writing Grant awards $2,500 annually to one Armenian writer whose work-in-progress shows exceptional literary and creative ability. In 2025, the grant was awarded for a work of fiction, and was made possible by a generous donation from author Aline Ohanesian.