On April 15, 2025, we hosted a special Literary Lights event featuring Nancy Kricorian, award-winning author of The Burning Heart of the World, in conversation with fellow writer, Nanore Barsoumian. The hybrid event took place at the NAASR Vartan Gregorian Building in Belmont, Massachusetts. In vivid, poetic prose, Nancy Kricorian’s The Burning Heart of the World tells the story of a Beirut Armenian family before, during, and after the Lebanese Civil War. Returning to the fabular tone of Zabelle, her popular first novel, Kricorian conjures up the lost worlds and intergenerational traumas that haunt a family in permanent exile. Leavened with humor and imbued with the timelessness of a folktale, The Burning Heart of the World is a sweeping saga that takes readers on an epic journey from the mountains of Cilicia to contemporary New York City. Literary Lights 2025 is a monthly reading series organized by IALA, the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research, and the Krikor and Clara Zohrab Information Center. Each event—held online or in-person—will feature a writer reading from their work, followed by a discussion with an interviewer and audience members. Keep an eye on our website and socials for the exact dates of each event. Read along with the series by purchasing titles from the IALA Bookstore powered by Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/shop/IALA © NAASR | David Medzorian

The Burning Heart of the World By Nancy Kricorian Red Hen Press (April 1, 2025) 216 pages, $17.95 What does it take to leave behind home and community when war ravages your city? What does [...]