BIOGRAPHY

Perla Kantarjian is an Armenian-Lebanese poet, writer, and educator. Her poetry has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and recognized by the Southbank Centre, The Poetry Society, the Bridport Prize, the Indigo Open Poetry Prize, and Palette Poetry’s Sappho Prize for Women Poets. Her debut manuscript You Must Become Field was a semi-finalist for the University of Wisconsin’s Brittingham and Felix Pollak Prizes and Black Lawrence Press’s St. Lawrence Book Award, and a pamphlet version was shortlisted for the Magma Open Poetry Pamphlet Competition. Her work has appeared in Electric Literature, Wasafiri, The Rumpus, Black Warrior Review, and elsewhere.​ Kantarjian was the Sonny Mehta Scholar representing the MENA region in the MA in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia, she previously taught literature and journalism at the International College in Beirut and worked as a journalist and executive editor at Annahar newspaper. Her poem “Half Woman Half Starlight” is archived on the Moon as part of the Lunar Codex art project. A submissions reader for Rusted Radishes (American University of Beirut), Kantarjian is also a member of Creative Armenia and the International Armenian Literary Alliance. Her debut collection You Must Become Field is forthcoming from Bad Betty Press in Autumn 2026.