Contributors

Sarine is a social-minded storyteller, writer, documentary film director, visual anthropologist, traveler, photographer, lover of life, and Reiki practitioner, who believes in the power of stories to challenge mentalities, move to take action, bridge gaps, heal, and inspire. Her work explores who we are in this world and how we connect with one another and the natural environment. She is the co-founder of PATMI, a cultural NGO which promotes community development and cultural heritage in rural Armenia through art, storytelling, and education. Sarine is fluent in English, French, and Armenian, as well as proficient in Spanish, Portuguese, and Dutch. She has studied Development Studies at Cambridge, Cultural Studies and Social Anthropology at Kent and Filmmaking at Raindance.
 

Missak Artinian (AKA Magic Missak, AKA the Armenian Channing Tatum) is a Los Angeles-based comedy writer and magician.

Ani Arzoumanianis a neuroscience and creative writing student at Colgate University, where she serves as the founder and president of the Armenian Students’ Association and a reporter for the school’s newspaper. She is also a certified firefighter and EMT, and volunteers for the Hamilton Fire Department while at school. During a mission trip to Armenia, hosted by Armenian-American Health Professionals Organization (AAHPO), she served as a translator and medical assistant. After medical school, she plans to take her skills back to Armenia, where she has spent every summer of her life, to help her people. Ani frequently writes about her experiences as an Armenian and a first responder and hopes to write as a hobby for the rest of her life.

Araxie Cass is a creative writing student at the University of Chicago. With her photographer mother, Anahit, she co-founded Rebirth Armenia, an organization that shares stories of survival and resistance in Artsakh and the border region of Tavush, where locals live under daily threat of military force from neighboring Azerbaijan. Her e-book, Defenders: Stories from Armenia’s Border Villages, is a collection of short stories from some of these locals. Araxie is a contributor for the Armenian feminist blog, Kooyrigs, and her work has appeared in Pilgrimage Magazine (2018), We Told This Story from the Margins (2015), A Record in Space (2016), and I Just Like the Way it Sounds (2017) 826CHI publications. In addition, she has been published in Potluck Magazine, McSweeney’s and The Chicago Reader.
 

 Kristine Anahit Cass is a photographer based in Chicago. Her work is animated by her concern for social and human rights issues. Through photography, she explores issues both personal and communal. A graduate of the University of Chicago, Cass trained as a lawyer, which informs her commitment to social justice. With a background in art history and design, Cass believes in art as a medium for change. Her project in Armenia, Borderlands Under Fire, was a 2018 Dorothea Lange-Paul Taylor Prize finalist. 
 

Harout Dedeyan is an architectural designer, photographer, and writer, who has lived in four different countries across three different continents: the United States, France, Armenia, and Lebanon. A graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Dedeyan is fascinated by the world of Environmental Design and is Associate Principal of Rottet Studio, an international architecture and design firm. His creative outlets besides work include drawing and sketching, writing and illustrating children's stories, screen printing, and photography to name a few.  Recently Dedeyan started Barz Pleasures, a short story blog in Armenian, English, and French, "about the simple pleasures in life, most likely in response to the not-so-simple times that we live in."

Hratch Demiurge is a comedian, poet, teacher and translator of Daniel Varoujan's Pagan Songs. He is currently in the process of translating the satirical biographies of the "Armenian Molière"—Hagop Baronian—a timely work on the incompetence/corruption of Armenian bigwigs in the latter half of the 19th century. Hratch lives and works in Los Angeles and insists what makes him so smart is that he is too stupid to understand nonsense.

Dickran Khodanian is an LA-based entrepreneur, researcher, and writer who holds a Master's Degree from Boston University in History and a Bachelor's Degree from California State University, Northridge in History and Armenian Studies. He has served as the former Communications Director of the Armenian National Committee of America - Western Region (ANCA-WR) as well as the Assistant Editor of both Asbarez News and the Armenian Weekly. He plans to pursue his Ph.D. in History in the future. His research interests include Artsakh, the Armenian Diaspora, and cuisine. 

Dalita Khoury holds a Bachelor’s degree in Philosophy from Boston University and will continue her studies this fall at Drexel University in Philadelphia for a Master of Science in Arts Administration. A self-proclaimed writer and film enthusiast, Dalita is seeking opportunities that enable her to engage with ideas critically and thoughtfully.