Applications Are Open: IALA’s 2025 Mentorship Program
The International Armenian Literary Alliance’s fifth annual mentorship program will run from July 1 through August 31, 2025, with mentorships for writers of the novel, short story, memoir, creative nonfiction, and poetry, as well as literary translation from both Armenian into English and English into Armenian. Mentors will read and provide feedback on their mentee’s writing and speak virtually with their mentee throughout the program to discuss the writing life, the mentee’s work and how to navigate the publishing industry. At the end of the program, IALA will host an Emerging Writers Showcase to give mentees the opportunity to read their work.
Applications are now closed.
You can learn more about the program by watching our info session, which took place on March 17, 2024, featuring mentors Aida Zilelian and Jen Siraganian.
Guidelines
- Applications are accepted from February 21 to March 30, 2025
- Genres: Novel, short story, memoir, creative nonfiction, poetry, and literary translation (Armenian into English and English into Armenian)
- Age: Applicants must be 18 years of age or over by July 1, 2025
- Applicants must not have a traditionally published book
- Applicants must identify as Armenian
- Applicants must be active IALA members (at the time of application). Click here to join IALA or to renew your membership
- Applicants will be asked to provide a sample of recent work. For fiction and creative nonfiction, we ask to see 10 pages. For poetry, please submit 5-10 poems. For translations, please submit up to 5 pages, and include the original source pages, a link to where the original text can be found online, or a detailed bibliographic citation of the original text
- The writing sample should be in the genre, and ideally from the project, the applicant intends to work on with their mentor
- Submissions must be in the English language
- All submissions must be double spaced (except for poetry), in 12 point font, Times New Roman, with standard 1” margins
- If an individual was accepted to the program previously, they are not able to apply again. If someone applied and wasn’t accepted, however, they are able to apply as many times as they wish
- Applications or writing samples containing text generated by artificial intelligence or other machine-based tools will not be accepted
Note: This program is intended only for those who are able to dedicate a significant amount of time during the mentorship period to working with their mentor. Selected participants must commit to a minimum of four meetings during the two-month mentorship period, and be willing to do the work required to develop their writing.
See the mentees and mentors of the 2024 IALA Mentorship Program.