I was born in Épernay, France, the home of champagne, to a winemaker father and an Armenian mother. My family moved to Australia when I was a child and again when I was 18, this time to the US. Rather than follow them on that second migration, I stayed behind in Melbourne, Australia, my base camp, of sorts, for the next two decades. Along the way, I've been a writer, editor, journalist, blogger, librarian, indigenous community worker, cheesemaker, wine merchant and jazz piano player.
I resolved to be a writer as a teenager and, after studies in literature and history at the University of Melbourne, I worked as a travel writer through most of my twenties and thirties. At various stages, I've lived in Marseille, Alice Springs, Paris, New Orleans and rural Virginia. At the age of 40, after a seven-year wait, I was granted a green card. I traveled the breadth of the US before opting to settle in Los Angeles, California.
I've spent the past few years writing a novel, Crossings, about identity, migration, memory, love and story-telling. It will be published by Picador Australia in July 2018. You can read the opening chapter here.
I resolved to be a writer as a teenager and, after studies in literature and history at the University of Melbourne, I worked as a travel writer through most of my twenties and thirties. At various stages, I've lived in Marseille, Alice Springs, Paris, New Orleans and rural Virginia. At the age of 40, after a seven-year wait, I was granted a green card. I traveled the breadth of the US before opting to settle in Los Angeles, California.
I've spent the past few years writing a novel, Crossings, about identity, migration, memory, love and story-telling. It will be published by Picador Australia in July 2018. You can read the opening chapter here.
