Lorne Shirinian

Lorne Shirinian is a poet and story writer bom in Toronto. He has published several books of poetry and stories. He received his PhD in Comparative Literature from the Universite de Montreal. His most recent book is Armenian-North American Literature: A Critical Introduction, Genocide, Diaspora and Symbols. A new book of poetry. Earthquake, will be appearing in spring 1991. He is a professor of English and Comparative Literature at the College militaire royal de Saint-Jean.\

Lory Bedikian

Lory Bedikian received her BA from UCLA with an emphasis in Creative Writing, Poetry where she was twice nominated for the Ina Coolbrith Memorial Prize in Poetry. She earned her MFA in Poetry from the University of Oregon, where she received the Dan Kimble First Year Teaching Award for Poetry. Her manuscript has been selected several times as a finalist in both the Crab Orchard Series in Poetry Open Competition and in the Crab Orchard Series in Poetry First Book Award Competition. She has received grants from the Money for Women/Barbara Deming Memorial fund and from AFFMA: Arpa Film Foundation for Music & Art. Her poems have been published in the Connecticut Review, Portland Review, Poetry International, Poet Lore and Heliotrope among other journals and have been included in Blue Arc West: An Anthology of California Poets. Poets & Writers chose her work as a finalist for the 2010 California Writers Exchange Award.

Lola Koundakjian

Lola Koundakjian is an award-winning Armenian-American poet, translator, and editor who writes in both English and her native Western Armenian. Born in Beirut and based in New York City since 1979, she is the author of three acclaimed poetry collections, including The Moon in the Cusp of My Hand, which won the 2021 Minas and Kohar Tölölyan Prize. Dedicated to preserving her cultural heritage, she serves on the board of the International Armenian Literary Alliance and curates the online Armenian Poetry Project.