Reflection on 2025 journey
As the holiday season approaches, we would like to share our warmest wishes for a joyful Christmas and a bright, hopeful New Year with all our colleagues, partners, and friends. May this time be filled with peace, warmth, and moments to cherish with your loved ones!
In the spirit of the season, the ARI Literature Foundation is happy to share a brief glimpse into 2025. Looking back on the past year, we are deeply grateful for the meaningful projects we brought to life and for the inspiring encounters we shared with remarkable people in wonderful places and at memorable events. Each experience has reminded us, once again, of the enduring power of literature: its ability to connect across cultures, spark imagination, and shape a more thoughtful and humane world.
INTERNATIONAL BOOK FAIRS, NETWORKING AND COLLABORATIONS
LEIPZIG INTERNATIONAL BOOK FAIR
Since 2024, ARI Literature Foundation has been a partner in an artistic residency exchange program supported by Stadt Leipzig and Goethe Institute Armenia. As a result of an open call for the first residency in Leipzig, Armenian poet and writer Anush Kocharyan was selected and spent the month of March at the Hanns Esler House in Leipzig. ARI Foundation’s Director Arevik Ashkharoyan was invited to moderate a panel discussion with Ms Kocharyan during the Leipzig International Book Fair. This was the closing event of the residency program and the discussion was opened by a short speech by Katharina Goerig, Head of the Literature and Translation Grant Programme at the Goethe-Institut. Kristina Raßmann, from the International Cooperation Unit of Stadt Leipzig was on the panel and read an extract from Kocharyan’s novel in German. The event was attended by officials and representatives from the Stadt Leipzig, Goethe Institute Headquarters, Literarische Colloquium Berlin, publishers, writers, translators and the German audience.
The ultimate result of the visit to the Leipzig Book Fair was an invitation from the fair’s representatives to the ARI Literature Foundation to organize a stand and a program of events in 2026. Due to cooperation with several German organizations, including Stadt Leipzig, and
our long-standing partners – Goethe Institute Armenia and Konrad Adenauer Foundation South Caucasus, this initiative will become possible and ARI Literature Foundation’s stand entitled “Armenia: The Land of Letters” will exhibit at the Leipzig Book Fair 2026. To make the visibility of the stand more impactful and constructive, ARI Literature Foundation will offer a diverse and rich program of events, including panel discussions and public lectures about Armenian-German historical and cultural relations, translating culture and politics through fiction literature, reflection of post social era of the cultural decolonization, topics of memory, migration and belonging with participation of writers and intellectuals from Armenia, Germany and Eastern Europe. Follow our news to learn more about this, share information among your German friends, partners and wider audiences and contact us, if you want to be a part of this initiative by supporting it.
ABU DHABI INTERNATIONAL BOOK FAIR
In April, ARI Literature Foundation exhibited at Abu Dhabi International Book Fair within the Armenian collective stand. This was the first time Armenian publishers, agents and literary organizations were a part of this fast-growing International Book Fair. We might be revisiting this event in 2026 to strengthen the connections that were established in 2025, especially with the publishers and organizations from the Arab-speaking region.
LISBON INTERNATIONAL BOOK FAIR
In June, Arevik Ashkharoyan and Program Coordinator Liana Shiroyan visited the Lisbon Book Fair for the first time as part of a fellowship program organized by the Creative Europe Desk Portugal. The program included an exchange of experience with literary and publishing institutions in Portugal. During the trip, a visit to ARI Foundation’s partner, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, was also organized.
This program extended the network of partners not only with Portuguese professionals, but also with other delegates, such as Serbia, Poland, Slovenia, and others. New cooperations have been initiated due to the visit and networking with colleagues.
EDINBURGH INTERNATIONAL BOOK FESTIVAL
In August, Ms Ashkharoyan was invited to be a part of Momentum Delegate Program organized by the British Council, Creative Scotland and Festivals Edinburgh during the Edinburgh International Book Festival. The program included visits to and professional exchange with the Scottish literary and publishing organizations, and events at the Book Festival. As a follow-up of the program, a funding opportunity was offered to Ms Ashkharoyan for establishing an Armenian-Scottish literary dialogue. As a result, in 2026 ARI Foundation’s pilot addition of an Annual Parallels International Literature Festival in Armenia will be launched and will host writers, poets and festival directors from Scotland along with other international participants and audiences. If you would like to be a part of this new initiative by ARI Foundation, as a volunteer, audience, participant moreover a supporter, please get in touch with us and follow our news!
FILIT CHISINAU – CHILL EDITION
In September Ms. Ashkharoyan was invited to the FILIT Chișinău, the special edition of a Romanian Literary Festival in Moldova. She was on the panel with acclaimed writers Andrei Kurkov from Ukraine, Lorina Balteanu form Moldova, Piotr Pogorzelski from Poland, literary critic and translator Gaga Lomidze from Georgia, and Radu Vancu from Romania who was moderating the discussion. This exceptional experience was impressive and opened cooperation possibilities with a country with a similar literary scene, but a better developed literary infrastructure and readership.
PROJECT UPDATES
VISUAL STORIES FROM ARMENIA, GEORGIA AND UKRAINE
Visual Stories from Armenia, Georgia and Ukraine project, co-funded by the EU Creative Europe, has come to an end. But before that, in the beginning of 2025, we welcomed a new consortium member, Drawing the Times graphic journalism platform of the Dutch MediaRidders Foundation.
The final project product, the comic book Last Night on Earth, was finalized and the English translation was the first to get published online at the Drawing the Times platform. The other languages of the book came out in the autumn in each partner country. The book was presented to the audience in the framework of the Yerevan International Book Festival in September, while the Armenian edition’s presentation took place at the TUMO Center for Creative Technologies in November.
A public presentation of the book and the project was also organized at the world’s largest publishing event — the Frankfurt Book Fair 2025. The panel brought together Mikheil Tsikhelashvili, the editor of the book, illustrators Astghik Harutyunyan (Armenia), Luka Lashkhi (Georgia), and Sofia Pokorchak (Ukraine), who each shared their creative journeys and the challenges of translating women’s stories about war into visual form.
ARI PRESS
2025 was marked by the release of five new books.
In April ARI Literature Foundation, on the initiative of the Circle of Friends of Grigor Beledian, has published three works by G. Beledian: Face to Face, The Understanding of a Thing, and Assadour. The Space of Erasure. The latter is bilingual and is available in Armenian-English and Armenian-French versions.
By the initiative of writer Aram Pachyan, ARI Literature Foundation, with the support of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, has published Krikor Beledian’s books Towards a Great Metaphor and Almost a Voice. Conversations with Krikor Beledian. Aram Pachyan was the editor of these books and the author of the new format to the Armenian book market – written conversations between the writers, which are not only deep and thought-provoking but also have a high value in the language and culture of such conversations.
On September 6th, within the frames of the Yerevan International Book Festival, the presentation of Krikor Beledian’s books took place, moderated by Aram Pachyan and with participation of Krikor Beledian in an online format.
In October, another event was organized during the visit of Mr Beledian to Armenia and it was hosted by Zangak Book Store. This time it was a live conversation between Pachyan and Beledian and a possibility for the readers to ask questions and share their impressions of the books.
Thank you for being part of our journey, for your trust and collaboration. Wishing you a peaceful holiday season, and looking forward to sharing many more stories together in 2026!