Raffi Wartanian

Raffi Joe Wartanian received a BA in History from the Johns Hopkins University, and a Masters of Fine Arts and Master of International Affairs from Columbia University where he taught in the Undergraduate Writing Program. Raffi has previously led writing workshops at Rikers Island jail, the Manhattan VA, and Letters for Peace, a program he founded that organized hybrid writing-peacebuilding workshops to foster constructive dialogue in conflict zones. Since joining UCLA Writing Programs in 2021, Raffi has taught classes in rhetoric, composition, creative writing, and engaged across campus with the UCLA Library, Fowler Museum, Teaching and Learning Center, Armenian Music Program, and the School of Theater, Film, and Television. Teaching and writing interests include language, identity, memory, history, global affairs, hybrid writing forms, and cultivating writing skills that are transferable across disciplines.

Raffi served as the inaugural Poet Laureate in the City of Glendale, California from 2023-2026. He was a 2025-2026 Laureate Fellow with the Academy of American Poets to support poetry programming with communities impacted by the January 2025 Eaton Fire, and an արդ եւս | in view Grantee with the Gulbenkian Foundation to cultivate a Western Armenian poetry community at the intersection of language and folk music. A recipient of grants and fellowships from The Fulbright Program, Eurasia Partnership Foundation, and Humanity in Action, his essays have appeared in The New York Times, Los Angeles Review of Books, University of Texas Press, Outside Magazine, Miami Herald, The Baltimore Sun, and elsewhere; his poetry has been published with Academy of American Poets, Washington Writers’ Publishing House, No Dear Magazine, Altadena Poetry Review, The Poetry Lighthouse, The Los Angeles Press, and beyond. He serves on the Advisory Board of the International Armenian Literary Alliance. As a musician, Raffi has released three albums of original compositions: Makam Delta, Critical Distance,  and Pushkin Street. In his free time, he loves to explore music, nature, storytelling, and service.