Join the International Armenian Literary Alliance (IALA) for the launch of the Sarkisian Workshop Series: Imagining Alternative Futures with Olivia Katrandjian. The virtual two-hour workshop will take place on March 29, 2026, at 9:00 AM Pacific | 12:00 PM Eastern | 8:00 PM Armenia Time. (Note: Daylight saving time is scheduled to begin on Sunday, March 29 in the UK, most of Europe, Lebanon, and Palestine, with clocks moving forward by one hour at the locally designated time in each country.)
As rising temperatures fuel environmental degradation, natural disasters, weather extremes, food and water insecurity, economic disruption and conflict, it has been argued that all fiction is now climate fiction, because the climate crisis affects every facet of our lives. Beyond typical dystopian and post-apocalyptic narratives, how can fiction allow us to contemplate alternative futures, seek justice and dream up creative approaches to combat the crisis? In this generative workshop, participants will be encouraged to center often neglected perspectives, and consider how decolonial, feminist and environmental struggles are intertwined.
Olivia Katrandjian is a writer and journalist published in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Oxford Review of Books, Ms. Magazine, and elsewhere. Her writing was anthologized in We Are All Armenian: Voices from the Diaspora. Her fiction was listed for Luxembourg’s National Literary Prize, the Bristol and Cambridge Short Story Prizes, the Oxford-BNU Award and the Dzanc Books Prize for Fiction. A 2021 Creative Armenia-AGBU fellow, she holds a Master's in creative writing from Oxford University, and is the founder of the International Armenian Literary Alliance.
Reading List:
Helm, by Sarah Hall
The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable, by Amitav Ghosh
The Nutmeg’s Curse: Parables for a Planet in Crisis, by Amitav Ghosh
The Overstory, by Richard Powers
Everything for Everyone, by Eman Abdelhadi and M. E. O’Brien
Afterglow: Climate Fiction for Future Ancestors, Edited by Grist
Metamorphosis: Climate Fiction for a Better Future, Edited by Grist
Ticket Prices: $20 for one workshop; $96 for all six in the series.
Please reach out to info@armenianliterary.org if you are interested in joining, but the registration price is prohibitive.
IALA programs are shared spaces for creative work, dialogue, and learning. We invite all participants to contribute to an environment of respect, care, and thoughtful engagement. IALA reflects the multiplicity of identities in the Armenian community and beyond, and we do not tolerate any offensive behavior regarding gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, religious belief, national origin, socio-economic class, educational background, personal style/appearance, citizenship and immigration status, or political affiliation. Participants whose behavior disrupts programs or harms the community may be asked to leave the space or restricted from future participation.
The Sarkisian Workshop Series 2026: Can Storytelling Save Us? is brought to you by IALA, Mizna, and the Asian American Writers Workshop (AAWW). Funded by the Sarkisian Foundation for the Arts and Engineering, the series offers six writing workshops that will include literary analysis and generative writing exercises. Designed to bring together writers from diverse backgrounds, these workshops will encourage writers to engage with the pressing issues of our time.