Meet the IALA 2022 Creative Writing Grant Recipient

We are delighted to announce that Victoria Harwood Butler-Sloss is the recipient of our inaugural Creative Writing Grant!

Victoria Harwood Butler-Sloss is an Anglo-Armenian writer and storyteller from Cyprus. She is the author of The Seamstress of Ourfa (2018), the first book in a trilogy beginning in the Ottoman Empire 1895 and following four generations of women until present day. Victoria is currently finalizing Love in Aleppo, the second book in the trilogy, for which she was awarded the IALA grant. In addition to writing, Victoria has also told stories through dancing as well as stage and voiceover acting, having trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. An excerpt of The Seamstress of Ourfa has been made into an award-winning short film, “A Flock of Birds.” In 2014, her diary about the 1974 war in Cyprus was exhibited and turned into a documentary called “Cyprus Summer 1974.”

You can purchase The Seamstress of Ourfa through its publisher, Armida Books, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Abril Books. The book is also available as an audiobook on Audible.

Connect with Victoria on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

The International Armenian Literary Alliance’s Creative Writing Grant is an annual award of $2,500 given to one Armenian writer whose work-in-progress shows exceptional literary and creative ability. The 2022 Creative Writing Grant was judged by Raffi Wartanian, Aline Ohanesian, Aida Zilelian and Nancy Agabian. Learn more about the grant here.