My writing career started in broadcast journalism, working at WPBN-TV and WXMI TV. But in the summer of 2018, I began to study creative nonfiction at the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis. I have also workshopped essays through the education program of Creative Nonfiction. In 2021, the Association of Writers and Poets selected me to be part of their Writer to Writer mentorship program. My mentor was Lara Lillibridge.

Published or forthcoming

“The Minnesota LGBTQ Standards of Inclusion for Health and Social Services” in The Routledge Handbook of LGBTQIA Administration and Policy edited by Wallace Swan (Routledge, 2018)

“The Words You Can’t Find in the Dictionary” in the anthology The Sun Isn’t Out Long Enough edited by Tatevik Sargsyan (Anamot Press, 2021). 

“A Literary Moment or Literary Movement?” in the Armenian Institute’s digital Celebrating Pride series (June 2021)

“The Words” in Imagining and Seeing: Voices from the Armenian Diaspora edited by Aram Mrjoian (University of Texas Press, 2022)

Current Projects

Nonfiction

I’m currently at work on a collection of essays, one of the first of its kind from a Queer Armenian writer. Here is a sample of the current essays in the collection.

The Assassination of Talaat Pasha by the Epileptic Soghomon Tehlirian. Is epilepsy meaningless? A personal essay that explores how we give meaning to epilepsy as seen through Tehlirian’s court trial and my own experiences living with epilepsy.

Coming to Terms. Do we really get over it? The story of the day I met Judy Shepard, the mother of Matthew Shepard, who had been kidnapped and beaten to death for being gay.

I Can’t Be DIverse Anymore (and other confessions of a soon to be former Chief Diversity Officer) – A Comedy Show (for Netflix) Burning out from a career in Equity and Inclusion, I decide to make a career change and the only logical option is stand-up comedy. So I wrote a special.

Fiction

Untitled Short Story. On the day Vahan sells The Sun, his business and life’s work, he and his former boyfriend Michael make a series of irrevocable decisions about their relationship. 

Untitled Novel Project. The fates of Magarid, an Armenian widow, and Garo, an Armenian-American sexual health worker, collide at a family reunion when a gun accident forces Magarid to confront the memories of the woman she may have killed.