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Event Videos — Krikor and Clara Zohrab Information Center

Literary Lights 2025: Featuring Nicole Haroutunian - October 19, 2025

Literary Lights 2025: Featuring Nicole Haroutunian - October 19, 2025

Featured Speaker: Nicole Haroutunian Olivia Katrandjian Date: October 19, 2025 Virtual event The October edition of Literary Lights 2025 featured Nicole Haroutunian, author of Choose This Now, in conversation with writer, journalist and IALA founder Olivia Katrandjian. Inseparable friends Val-and-Tal are used to making their decisions together. But what happens when their choices become their own? CHOOSE THIS NOW, a novel-in-stories, illuminates the small moments that shape their lives across nearly twenty years. On Val’s 21st birthday—which falls on Halloween—a sudden act of violence interrupts a longed-for kiss. This unfinished moment haunts Val year after year until she materializes in...


Literary Lights 2025: Featuring Aram Mrjoian - September 20, 2025

Literary Lights 2025: Featuring Aram Mrjoian - September 20, 2025

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.


Literary Lights 2025: Featuring Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian ~ Saturday, June 28, 2025

Literary Lights 2025: Featuring Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian ~ Saturday, June 28, 2025

Our June edition of Literary Lights 2025 reading series features Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian, professor, curator and author of Forest Euphoria: The Abounding Queerness of Nature, in conversation with award-winning writer Nancy Kricorian. 


Literary Lights 2025: Featuring Gregory Djanikian ~ Saturday, May 10, 2025

Literary Lights 2025: Featuring Gregory Djanikian ~ Saturday, May 10, 2025

With Nostalgia for the Future: New and Selected Poems, 1984-2023, award-winning poet Gregory Djanikian returns to the literary scene with a collection that spans and celebrates his prolific career.


Nancy Kricorian in Conversation with Nanore Barsoumian ~ Tuesday, April 15, 2025

Nancy Kricorian in Conversation with Nanore Barsoumian ~ Tuesday, April 15, 2025

Nanore Barsoumian and Nancy Kricorian will be discussing Kricorian’s new novel The Burning Heart of the World.


Literary Lights 2025: A Panel Discussion with Wasafiri Armenian Issue Editors and Contributors ~ Saturday, March 22, 2025

Literary Lights 2025: A Panel Discussion with Wasafiri Armenian Issue Editors and Contributors ~ Saturday, March 22, 2025

Join us for a thought-provoking conversation exploring these questions with contributors to Wasafiri Magazine’s special issue, Armenia(n)s – Elevation.


LITERARY LIGHTS: Lory Bedikian and Brian Turner ~ Saturday, September 21, 2024

LITERARY LIGHTS: Lory Bedikian and Brian Turner ~ Saturday, September 21, 2024

The final installment of the reading series, Literary Lights 2024, features Lory Bedikian, author of the Raz/Shumaker Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Poetry winner, Jagadakeer: Apology to the Body. Bedikian was joined by award-winning poet, essayist and professor, Brian Turner.

LITERARY LIGHTS: The Palace of Forty Pillars ~ Saturday, May 4, 2024

LITERARY LIGHTS: The Palace of Forty Pillars ~ Saturday, May 4, 2024

Wry, tender, and formally innovative, Armen Davoudian’s debut poetry collection, The Palace of Forty Pillars, tells the story of a self estranged from the world around him as a gay adolescent, an Armenian in Iran, and an immigrant in America.

LITERARY LIGHTS: Children's Authors Astrid Kamalyan and Leila Boukarim ~ Saturday, April 13, 2024 ~ On Zoom

LITERARY LIGHTS: Children's Authors Astrid Kamalyan and Leila Boukarim ~ Saturday, April 13, 2024 ~ On Zoom

Literary Lights is a monthly reading series organized by the IALA, the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR), and the Krikor and Clara Zohrab Information Center. The series features new works of literature by Armenian authors. Each event—held online—will feature a writer reading from their work, followed by a discussion with an interviewer and audience members.