Write in Armenia International Writing Camp 2024, entitled "Documenting the Reality: Fiction VS Journalism"
On June 17-21, ARI Literature Foundation conducted a new edition of the Write in Armenia International Writing Camp, entitled Documenting reality: Fiction vs journalism in Yerevan.
The Project was implemented in cooperation with Kalem Kultur (Turkey). The project aims to promote a continuous dialogue between the new generation of writers and journalists from Armenia and Turkey by creating a platform for communication and cooperation.
The Armenian team consisted of two young Armenian writers and two young journalists, accompanied and led by mentors – writer Anush Kocharyan and journalist Rubina Markosyan. Turkey was represented by a group of two young writers and two young journalists, accompanied by their mentors – writer Asl Perker and journalist Filiz Aygunduz.
In the frames of the project joint general and professional lectures were delivered for the young writers and journalists, during which the mentors of the project shared stories about their professional path, encountered obstacles, their experience of overcoming them, as well as peculiarities and challenges they came to face in their professional career. Apart from the professional courses, separate sessions were organized throughout the training days.
One of the sessions was conducted by Arevik Ashkharoyan, founder of ARI Literature Foundation and ARI Literary Agency, and Nermin Molloghlu, founder of Kalem Kultur and Kalem Literary Agency, who talked about the functions and activities of the literary agent. Another session was conducted by Mariam Yeghiazaryan, program coordinator of the Cultural and Social Narratives Laboratory, who presented one of their projects, entitled “Balat: Living Together”, which seeks to research, visualize and narrativize the memory of Balat, one of the oldest districts of Istanbul.
Following the project format, at the end of each day, participants of the project prepared written pieces – articles or essays, based on the assignments received from the lecturers or simply reflecting the impressions and feelings of the day and uploaded them to the dedicated website writeinarmenia.org.
A number of cultural visists have been organized in the framework of the project: the participants of the camp visited the temple of Garni, Geghard monastery, the Ark of Charents, as well as the Komitas Museum- Institute, Yervand Kochar Museum, Armenian Genocide Museum- Institute and Matenadaran. They also had a chance to have a sightseeing tour around Yerevan.
On the last day of the project, the participants visited the Office of the ARI Literature Foundation for the Open Mic event, where they presented and read their works.
The project has been implemented in the framework of the Sub-grant component of the “Support to the Armenia-Turkey Normalization Process: Rapid Response” program of the Eurasia Partnership Foundation with the support of the European Union.
