Nora Nadjarian

Nora Nadjarian  is an award-winning poet and author of short fiction. Her work deals with the themes of women, refugees, identity, exile, love and loss, as well as the political situation in Cyprus. She lives in Nicosia, Cyprus. 

Best known in Cyprus for her short story collection Ledra Street (2006), she has had poetry and short fiction published internationally. She has been cited or published in the Guardian, the Irish Times and the Telegraph and has also won prizes and commendations in international competitions, including the Commonwealth Short Story Competition, the Binnacle International Ultra-Short Competition, the Seán Ó Faoláin Short Story Prize and the Reflex Fiction flash competition. In 2022 her story "Doors" was included in the Wigleaf Top 50 Short Fictions of the year.

Her work was included in A River of Stories, an anthology of tales and poems from across the Commonwealth, Best European Fiction 2011 (Dalkey Archive Press), Being Human (Bloodaxe Books, 2011) , Capitals (Bloomsbury, 2017), The Stony Thursday Book (Limerick, 2018) and Europa 28 (Comma Press). Her latest book is the collection of short stories Selfie (Roman Books, 2017). Her short plays Mermaid and Catalina were performed at the Old Red Lion theatre in London.

Nora has represented Cyprus at literary events and festivals in Europe and elsewhere, including Frankfurt Book Fair and Dresdner Bardinale and within the framework of EU2016, in the poetry project In European Poetry I want to live (Amsterdam). She was a writer-in-residence at Goga Publishing House (Slovenia) in 2019 and a speaker and workshop facilitator at the Flash Fiction Festival in Bristol. She presented her work at the Literarisches Colloquium (Berlin) in July 2019. The Hay Festival selected her to represent Cyprus in the project Europa28: Visions for the Future in 2020.

In 2022 she was involved in a Poetry Society/EUNIC project where she produced new work in collaboration with Jacqueline Saphra (interviewed here by Leslie Tate). She also won the Anthropocene Valentine’s Day poetry competition, was a finalist in the Mslexia poetry competition and was nominated for the Forward Prize for best single poem. Her collection 'Iktsuarpok' was published by Broken Sleep Books and was reviewed by Sheenagh Pugh. 

She has a special interest in the teaching of creative writing. In recent years she has facilitated several creative writing workshops – in English, Greek and German – at schools, universities and prisons in Cyprus and Germany.

Testimonials

With poems that both captivate and question, Nadjarian's voice proves attentive to the fluctuating pulses of this world. REBECCA GOSS

Nora Nadjarian's intensely colourful, image-filled poems offer us a view of the world from surreal and fresh perspectives. But do not be fooled: these poems are not afraid to point the reader’s attention directly at the heart of human violence and conflict. JACQUELINE SAPHRA

Nora Nadjarian's remarkable stories demonstrate the infinite flexibility and potential of the short story form. They are at once poignant, witty, stylish, and beautifully observed miniatures of magic realism. They manage to be both experimental, pushing the boundaries of the form outwards, and instantly engaging. This is a wonderful collection of mingling, overlapping, conflicting and converging voices. JONATHAN TAYLOR

A compelling and poetic collection of short stories with a dark underbelly, full of raw emotion and human truth. Stories of women making sense, taking action and nursing wounds inflicted by men, by fate and historic events, by dark family secrets and haunting memories. EVE MAKIS

Nora Nadjarian’s distilled short stories are abrupt and intense, as invigorating and aromatic as a double shot of literary espresso. ANJALI JOSEPH

Nora Nadjarian’s heart-warming ‘Hummingbird’ unfolds over four acts, and artfully explores language, geography and identity. LAILA OBEIDAT, London Magazine

Of the six vignettes, the most Almodóvar-like was Nora Nadjarian's Catalina (actors: Mischa Huijsmans, Sophie Olivia) with plot twists, high drama, shouts, pistols and wild imaginings." **** LONDONTHEATRE1.COM