Arminé Iknadossian

Born in Beirut, Lebanon, Arminé Iknadossian’s family fled to California when she was four years old to escape the civil war. After graduating from UCLA, Iknadossian earned an MFA in Creative Writing at Antioch University. The author of All That Wasted Fruit (Main Street Rag), Iknadossian’s work is included in XLA Anthology, Whale Road Review, Southern Florida Poetry Journal, MacQueen’s Quarterly and The American Journal of Poetry. She has received fellowships from Idyllwild Arts, The Los Angeles Writing Project and Otis College of Art and Design. She lives in Long Beach, California where she offers writing workshops and private manuscript consultations. Discover more at https://www.armineiknadossian.com and https://www.surprisetheline.com/team

Arminé enjoys working with local artists like Nancy Lynée Woo to bring literary arts events to local, national and international writers. She loves to teach writing workshops online and in person. Some of the classes she is offering through Nancy’s SURPRISE THE LINE organization include generative writing classes and revision circles which offer safe, intimate, anti-racist, inclusive and dynamic spaces for writers to explore their inner world and to write authentically and deeply.

Recently Arminé’s poems were featured in XLA Poets Anthology (Hinchas Press) along with nine other womxn of color who represent Los Angeles’s diversity. https://www.hinchaspress.com/product/X-LA-Poets/47?cp=true&sa=true&sbp=false&q=false

Project 1521 is another one of Arminé’s passion projects. Project 1521 is a collaboration between artist Sandy Rodriguez, writer/KPCC reporter Adolfo Guzman-Lopez and six other local artists, writers and scholars including Arminé. It was inspired by Indigenous perspectives on the Spanish invasion. The project brings together artists, writers, and scholars to generate visual and literary works as acts of resistance.