Lola Koundakjian

Lola Koundakjian^[1] was born in Beirut, Lebanon and has resided in New York City since 1979. She writes in Armenian, her mother tongue, and English. She has organized evenings dedicated to the Dead Armenian Poets Society since she was in university, and has curated the online Armenian Poetry Project since 2006.

A regular reader in New York City and its tri-state area, Koundakjian has appeared in four international poetry festivals: at Medellin, Colombia, 2010; ^[2] Lima, Peru, 2013;^[3] Ramallah, West Bank, 2013; and Trois-Rivières, Quebec, Canada, 2014.^[4] Her translations of modern Istanbul poets have been included in Western Armenian language teaching manuals.

Lola has received two grants from the Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance, New York, USA, and the Naji Naaman Literary Prize in Lebanon. She is the author of the Armenian/English poetry collection The Accidental Observer,^[5] which includes translations in Spanish.

Koundakjian's second book, Advice To A Poet, was a finalist in Armenia's Orange Book Prize in 2012 and will be featured at Amotape Libros in Lima, Peru.

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