Tatevik Ayvazyan, London-based writer and producer with Rebel Republic Films and the former director of the Armenian Institute. She is the producer of the award-winning poetry film, Taniel, and is currently adapting Iris Murdoch’s The Italian Girl. She’s a board member of the International Armenian Literary Alliance, focusing on translation projects, and of Azad Archives.

Naneh Hovhannisyan, Armenian-born researcher and writer of book reviews and personal essays. She is interested in history, memory, and belonging. Her work has been published by EVN Report, WritersMosaic, the Cambridge Review of Books, and others. Naneh co-edited the 2024 special issue of Wasafiri Magazine, Armenia(n)s: Elevation.

Sana Goyal, Editor and Publishing Director of Wasafiri. She has an MA in Postcolonial Studies and a PhD in literary prizes from SOAS, University of London. Her reviews have appeared in The Guardian, Financial Times, Times Literary Supplement, and elsewhere. She is a judge for the 2025 International Booker Prize.

Sylvia Angelique Alajaji, author of Music and the Armenian Diaspora: Searching for Home in Exile. She was most recently Professor of Music at Franklin & Marshall College and is currently serving as Associate Director of the CNRS-UChicago International Research Center for Fundamental Discovery at the University of Chicago.

Armen Davoudian, author of the The Palace of Forty Pillars (Tin House, US; Corsair, UK), longlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Award in Poetry, and the translator, from Persian, of Hopscotch by Fatemeh Shams (Ugly Duckling Presse). He grew up in Isfahan, Iran, and is a PhD candidate in English at Stanford University. Learn more at www.armendavoudian.com

Myrna Douzjian, Continuing Lecturer in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at UC Berkeley. Her research and critical articles on Armenian literature, film, and drama have been published in academic volumes and literary periodicals, while her translations of Armenian plays and poetry have been staged in Los Angeles.

Shogher Sargsyan, journalist, TV host and actress from Stepanakert. During the blockade of Artsakh, she co-created and hosted the Inadu podcast with her friend Nina Shahverdyan. Following the forced expulsion of Armenians from Artsakh in 2023, she resides in Yerevan, where she continues her work in Armenian theater and takes her first steps in literature.

What is home to Armenians in literature? Which Armenians, you may ask? How does the idea of homeland manifest in the latest English-language literary anthology of Armenian writing? Where can the multitudes of symbolic, remembered, and actual homelands of Armenians be found?

Join us for a thought-provoking conversation exploring these questions with contributors to Wasafiri Magazine’s special issue, Armenia(n)s – Elevation. The panel, chaired by the issue’s co-editors, Tatevik Ayvazyan and Naneh V. Hovhannisyan, will feature Wasafiri’s Editor-in-Chief and Publishing Director, Sana Goyal. Bringing together a poet, a comparative literature scholar, a nonfiction writer, and an ethnomusicologist, this discussion will delve into reading, writing, narratives, and hopes.

From poetry and fiction to thought-provoking book reviews, art, life writing and in-depth interviews, Wasafiri’s “Armenia(n)s – Elevation” is a rich tapestry of modern Armenian voices. It offers readers a profound and eloquent exploration of the human condition through meditations on the Armenian language, culture, and identity. Featured contributors include award-winners such as Chris Bohjalian, Nancy Kricorian, and many more. Learn more about this landmark edition.

CO-SPONSORS:

NAASR

IALA

The Zohrab Information Center

Wasafiri Magazine