Featured Speaker: Aram Mrjoian
In Conversation with Chris McCormick
September 20, 2025, at 10:00 AM Pacific | 1:00 PM Eastern | 9:00 PM AMT
AILA's Literary Lights 2025 reading series returns with an event featuring Aram Mrjoian, editor and author of Waterline, in conversation with award-winning writer Chris McCormick.
In this deeply moving debut novel, a close-knit Armenian American family grapples with the aftermath of losing one of their own.
Outside Detroit on the island of Gross Ile, the Kurkjians receive news that Mari, the eldest of their youngest generation, has swum into the depths of Lake Michigan with no intent of returning to shore—the consequences of which drag out a deeply rooted pain passed down from generations before.
More than a century earlier, Gregor, the great-grandfather and patriarch of the Kurkjian family, survived the Armenian Genocide after fighting for his freedom atop Musa Dagh. Decades later and miles away, Gregor’s epic mythos is inherited by his family as they navigate living in its shadow. As the Kurkjians now struggle with their new, devastating loss, secrets and shortcomings rise to the surface, forcing each relative to decide where their own story fits in the narrative of their family’s fraught history.
For fans of Tommy Orange’s There, There, Thao Thai’s Banyan Moon, and Jeffrey Eugenides’ epic Middlesex, Waterline explores the complex beauty of diaspora, the weight of inherited trauma, and the echoes of the Genocide on contemporary Armenian life. This is a searing portrait of a family afloat in grief and the perseverance needed to rise above.
Praise for the Book
“A gripping journey through time, Mrjoian brings readers deep into the heart of the Armenian Genocide and its ripples across generations. . . . Waterline is a must-read—intense, moving, and unforgettable.” — Morgan Talty, national bestselling author of Night of the Living Rez and Fire Exit
“A moving portrait of grief and the shadows of silence.” — Vanessa Chan, bestselling author of The Storm We Made
“Waterline is smart and beautiful and breathtaking in its Rashomon-like chronicle of the ripple effect of a young woman’s suicide. The depth of Aram Mrjoian’s exploration of an extended family in crisis is stunning, and his insights into grief and loss are profound. I was awed by this first novel.” — Chris Bohjalian, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Sandcastle Girls
About the Speakers
Aram Mrjoian is the managing editor of Michigan Quarterly Review, and a 2022 Creative Armenia-AGBU Fellow. Aram has previously worked as an editor at the Chicago Review of Books, the Southeast Review, and TriQuarterly. He is also the editor of the anthology We Are All Armenian: Voices from the Diaspora. His writing has appeared in the Guardian, Runner’s World, Literary Hub, Catapult, West Branch, Electric Literature, Gulf Coast, Boulevard, Joyland, Longreads, and many other publications. He holds an MFA in creative writing from Northwestern University and a PhD in creative writing from Florida State University. He lives in Michigan.
Chris McCormick is the author of a novel, The Gimmicks (Harper, 2020), a New York Times Editors’ Choice, and a short story collection, Desert Boys, winner of the 2017 Stonewall Book Award—Barbara Gittings Literature Award. His essays and stories have appeared in The Atlantic, the Los Angeles Times, and The Southern Review. The son of an Armenian mother and an American father, he grew up in the Antelope Valley on the California side of the Mojave Desert before earning his BA from the University of California, Berkeley, and his MFA from the University of Michigan. He teaches in the English department at Phillips Exeter Academy and is at work on his next book with the support of a 2024 Creative Writing Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Literary Lights 2025 is a monthly reading series organized by IALA, the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research, and the Krikor and Clara Zohrab Information Center. Each event—held online or in-person—will feature a writer reading from their work, followed by a discussion with an interviewer and audience members.
Organized by International Armenian Literary Alliance (IALA), the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR), and The Krikor and Clara Zohrab Information Center.