Introducing the Mentees of IALA’s 2025 Mentorship Program
We are excited to welcome our new class of mentees for IALA’s fifth annual Mentorship Program—which will run until August 31st, 2025—working on poetry, fiction and nonfiction!
The application period for IALA’s 2025 Mentorship Program is closed. Please subscribe to our newsletter for future updates.
Milena Abrahamyan is a queer feminist from Armenia, part of civic movements in the region, collaborator on feminist art and projects that aim to build trust and solidarity among diverse communities across borders and divides.
Georgi Bargamian is a freelance writer of news, opinion and poetry focusing on themes of loss, longing, identity and heritage. She resides in Ann Arbor, MI.
Nanore Barsoumian is a Boston-based writer and researcher. She was editor of The Armenian Weekly (2014–2016) and assistant editor (2010–2014), reporting from Armenia, Artsakh, and Turkey. She holds B.A. degrees in Political Science and English and an M.A. in Conflict Resolution. Her research on social identities in genocide commemorations in Turkey appears in After the Ottomans: Genocide’s Long Shadow and Armenian Resilience (I.B. Tauris, 2023). In 2023, she joined NYU’s Global Institute for Advanced Studies, focusing on Armenian genocide denial at the UN. She is currently working on her debut novel about belonging and self-invention. More at www.nanorebarsoumian.com.
Marie Davtyan is a writer based in Yerevan with a background in linguistics. Her professional writing has focused on tech and digital communication, but recently, she has returned to creative work with a focus on lyric and prose poetry. Her writing explores how language can hold space for memory, loss, and emotional transformation. She is working on her first poetry collection, examining the ways language can carry both personal memory and shared experience. She’s grounded by quiet routines and time in nature and connects most deeply through listening and engaging in meaningful, extended conversations.
Aline Keledjian is a recent graduate of the George Washington University with a B.A. in International Affairs and History. She is a firm believer in the power of storytelling as a tool to strengthen understanding in oneself and in community. This belief forms the core of her poetry. Inspired by the stories she listened to as a child from her Beirutsi and Halebtsi family members, Aline’s poetry empowers readers to celebrate the history within us all.
Armenak Menechyan is a learner and truth seeker from LA and loves to spend his free time being carried by the warm embrace of mother nature and believes strongly in the power of human connection and the common thread that runs through us all. Learning, writing, activism, music, dancing, love, the human mind, ancient contemplative practices and his puppy Coconut, as well as, the collective capacity for goodness inspire him.
Originally from Yerevan, Armenia, Elina Mir is a writer and abstract artist based in California. She is the author of four books and the novel Unraveling, known for exploring themes of pain, hope, and the human condition. Her work—both written and visual—is experimental and emotionally driven. She is also active in the Armenian creative community, holding roles in national writers’ and artists’ associations. Learn more at elinamir.com
E.C. Salibian is a nonfiction writer whose work has appeared in The Sun, Cutleaf Journal, Fourth Genre, Ararat, and other publications. She holds an MFA from Bennington College and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize.
Siranush Sargsyan is a freelance journalist from Artsakh, now based in Armenia, covering human rights, politics, and women’s experiences in conflict zones. Her work appears in BBC, Newsweek, New Lines Magazine, Open Democracy, Hyperallergic, and The Armenian Weekly. With degrees in History and Political Science and as a Tavitian Scholar at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, she brings deep insight to her reporting on forcibly displaced Armenians. Siranush focuses on amplifying the voices of those affected by conflict and displacement, combining academic rigor with on-the-ground storytelling.
Judith Saryan is the daughter and granddaughter of Armenian Genocide survivors. She is on the Advisory Board of Facing History and Ourselves and the board of NAASR, the leading scholarly institution supporting Armenian studies and research in the U.S. Along with her colleagues at AIWA, the Armenian International Women’s Association, she introduced the work of the groundbreaking author Zabel Yessayan to English speaking audiences. She has given talks to secondary and college students, enabling active engagement and understanding of Genocide and its continuation today. She is a Citizen Scientist at Mt. Auburn Cemetery.
Mariam Vahradyan holds a Master of Applied Positive Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania, where she was awarded the Christopher Peterson Memorial Fellowship. She is the co-founder of Kaitzak, a nonprofit dedicated to fostering a healthy and interconnected global diaspora. Her research and writing explore narrative and meaning-making within diaspora communities, and her work has been published in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, The Armenian Weekly, EVN Report, Seeing Happy, and HyePhen Magazine. She has also presented her research at international conferences, including UNIS-UN at the United Nations General Assembly.
Karin Vosgueritchian lives in Berkeley, California, where she works in the public sector. She was born in Aleppo, Syria to a Lebanese-Armenian father and a Greek-Syrian mother, and grew up in the Southern Californian suburbs. She enjoys learning about languages, theatre, and history.