Laura Kalpakian is the author of seventeen works of fiction (novels, novellas and story collections) in both the US, the UK, and abroad. Her nonfiction book, Memory Into Memoir: a Writer's Handbook (2021) is the fruit of twenty years teaching fiction and memoir. Winner of an NEA Fellowship, a Pushcart Prize, the PEN West Award, and the Anahid Award for an American writer of Armenian descent; she also twice won Pacific Northwest Booksellers' Award. Her novel, American Cookery was nominated for the 2007 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. She has served as a regular book critic for both the Miami Herald and the San Jose Mercury News. She has held artists' residencies at Hawthornden Castle, Scotland, the Montalvo Center for the Arts, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. A native Californian, Laura Kalpakian was educated on both the east and west coasts with a BA and an MA in history. She lives in the Pacific Northwest.
