Sarkisian Workshop Series launch: Imagining Alternative Futures with Olivia Katrandjian

2026-03-14 - 14:34

The International Armenian Literary Alliance (IALA), Mizna and the Asian American Writers’ Workshop (AAWW) invite you to 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 a.m. Pacific | 12:00 p.m. Eastern | 8:00 p.m. Armenia time. 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. Moving beyond typical dystopian and post-apocalyptic narratives, how can fiction help us envision a better reality? In this two-hour virtual workshop, writers of all genres will be invited to imagine different ways of living and interacting with each other and the earth. We will explore how storytelling allows us to seek justice, and dream up creative approaches to combat the climate crisis. Participants will be encouraged to center often neglected perspectives, and consider how decolonial, feminist and environmental struggles are intertwined. We’ll imagine a world we want to live in, and write a more hopeful future together. 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 masters 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. Purchase your tickets here. 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 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. Explore the full series and read along with it by purchasing titles at IALA’s Bookshop.org storefront. 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.