IALA Israelyan English Translation Grant 2025

The Israelyan English Translation Grant from the International Armenian Literary Alliance will award $3,000 to one translator working from an English source text into Eastern Armenian, whose work-in-progress shows exceptional literary and creative ability. In 2025, the grant will be awarded for a work of contemporary literature written by an Armenian author in English, from a list selected by IALA. The complete list of texts which we would like to see translated feature authors who represent and support the Armenian literary community; their works were selected for their diversity in voices and subject matters. The grant will be judged by Arevik Ashkharoyan and Shushan Avagyan.

Despite the growing number of translated works from English to Eastern Armenian in recent years, translated literature remains an area that needs further attention and development. IALA’s Israelyan English Translation Grant supports translators working with literature written in the English language through a monetary award. Additionally, IALA will support grant recipients in promoting their publications through marketing on our website and social media channels, book reviews, readings, and discussions.

Applications are now closed.

For poetry, the application should include 8 to 10 translated poems from the collection the translator intends to use the grant to complete. For all other texts, the application should include a 5,000-word translation sample from the work the translator intends to use the grant to complete.

All applications require a brief bio and a personal statement summarizing the translator’s relationship to the work (i.e., why they’ve chosen to translate the work that they have selected). The full application will be posted online on September 1, 2025.

This grant was made possible by a generous donation from Souren A. Israelyan.

Titles to Translate

FICTION

Nancy Agabian, The Fear of Large and Small Nations (2023)
Mashinka Firunts Hakopian, The Institute for Other Intelligences (2022)
Nancy Kricorian, All the Light There Was (2013)
Nancy Kricorian, The Burning Heart of the World (2025)
Naira Kuzmich, In Everything I See Your Hand (2022)
Chris McCormick, The Gimmicks (2020)
Aida Zilelian, The Legacy of Lost Things (2015)
Aida Zilelian, All the Ways We Lied (2024)

NONFICTION

Nancy Agabian, Me as Her Again: True Stories of an Armenian Daughter (2008)
Aram Mrjoian, We Are All Armenian (2023)

POETRY

Nancy Agabian, Princess Freak (2000)
Peter Balakian, No Sign (2020)
Susan Barba, Geode (2020)
Lory Bedikian, The Book of Lamenting (2011)
Lory Bedikian, Jagadakeer: Apology to the Body (2024)
Armen Davoudian, The Palace of Forty Pillars (2024)
Gregory Djanikian, So I Will Till the Ground (2007)
Gregory Djanikian, Nostalgia for the Future (2025)
Alec Ekmekji, Beneath the Glass Bell (2018)
Arminé Iknadossian, All That Wasted Fruit (2018)
Arthur Kayzakian, The Book of Redacted Paintings (2023)
Lola Koundakjian, Moon in the Cusp of my Hand (2020)
Shahe Mankerian, The History of Forgetfulness (2021)
Alan Semerdjian, In the Architecture of Bone (2009)

Also explore IALA’s Israelyan Eastern Armenian Translation Grant and Israelyan Western Armenian Translation Grant.

Eligibility and Requirements

Age: Must be over 21 at the time of application.
Language: The translation must be made into English.
Applicants must be active members of IALA at the time of application. For those on a low income or who are unemployed, we offer several discounted or free memberships per year.
Not open to members of the IALA board of directors or advisory board.
No previous publication record is required.
Applicants may submit one application per year. Those who are not awarded the grant may re-apply in the future. Grant recipients are ineligible to re-apply for two years.
Source texts must be selected only from the list provided above.
Grants are intended for translations that are in progress and not yet under any publication contract. If you have published a short excerpt from the larger work, you are still eligible to apply for this grant. However, no more than ten percent of the work should be previously published.
Applicants should be prepared to answer questions in the application regarding their vision for publication of the translation once completed (i.e. whether they have been in contact with a publisher or publishers interested in publishing this translation, or what presses they intend to submit it to for consideration, etc.)
If the work is not in the public domain, applicants are responsible for ensuring the translation rights to the selected work are available, and not already sold with a translation in process. Applicants should notify the rights holder they are translating a sample of the work as part of the application for this grant, with the intention of completing the translation and publishing the work if awarded the grant.
The final manuscript of the translation must be completed by December 2026.

Review Criteria

Applications will be reviewed through a “blind” panel process. Judging will be based on the translator’s adaptation of the author’s craft and style; in other words, the quality of the translation in preserving the author’s intent.

In addition to considering issues of craft, we also prioritize the expression of individuals coming from unique and marginalized backgrounds. We are interested in the translator’s connection with the source work. We expect the personal statement to convey how receiving the grant will help the translator in the completion of their project.