The application period is now open for the International Armenian Literary Alliance’s two $2,500 grants, one for a translation from Armenian into English, and one for contemporary creative writing. Applications will be accepted from September 1-30, 2022. 

IALA’s Creative Writing Grant will award $2,500 annually to one Armenian writer whose work-in-progress shows exceptional literary and creative ability. In 2022, the grant will be awarded for a work of fiction, and in the coming years, to works of poetry and creative nonfiction, as well as other mixed genre forms. The 2022 grant will be judged by Raffi Wartanian, Aline Ohanesian, Aida Zilelian and Nancy Agabian.

The Creative Writing Grant is meant to foster the development of contemporary Armenian literature in English through an annual monetary award. Additionally, IALA will support grant recipients in promoting their publications through marketing on our website and social media channels, through book reviews and readings and discussions.

IALA’s Translation Grant will award $2,500 to one translator working from Armenian source texts into English. In 2022, the grant will be awarded for any work of prose written in Western Armenian by a female author. Although preference will be given to more recent (post-20th century) works, we welcome works from any time period. The 2022 grant will be judged by Tatevik Ayvazyan, Gagik Stepan-Sarkissian and Garen Torikian.

Given the traumatic history of the Armenian diaspora, many readers are unable to read works in the original Armenian, and therefore, have centuries of literature inaccessible to them. Translators working with Armenian texts have traditionally lacked resources in the publishing world, as well as access to other funding, due to the overwhelming influence of so-called “majority languages.” IALA’s Translation Grant is meant to foster the development of contemporary Armenian literature in English through a monetary award. 

Additionally, in partnership with the Armenian Institute and Mashtots Press and with funding from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, IALA will support the grant recipient in publishing and promoting the selected work. As Western Armenian is on UNESCO’s endangered languages list, we believe that it is imperative to bring more attention to Western Armenian literature. As female authors producing Armenian literature are a minority within a minority, it’s also necessary to highlight the works of these writers.

Please read the eligibility criteria and guidelines in full before applying. 

Both grants were made possible by a generous donation from the Armenian Allied Arts Association, an organization based in Southern California that discovered, encouraged and promoted new talent of Armenian descent for over 80 years.