Laura Anne Kalpakian (born June 28, 1945) is an American author. She has also published under the pen names Juliet FitzgeraldPilcer, Sonia (December 2, 1990). Fiction. (review of Belle Haven). ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...

'' and Carenna Jane Greye. She is known for her work in the

memoir A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based in the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autobiog ...

genre.

Life and career

Kalpakian was born in

Long Beach, California Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California. Incorporate ...

, the daughter of Peggy (Kalpakian), a secretary, and William Johnson, a technical representative. She grew up in southern California. She earned her undergraduate degree from

University of California, Riverside The University of California, Riverside (UCR or UC Riverside) is a public land-grant research university in Riverside, California. It is one of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The main campus sits on in a suburban distr ...

in 1967. After starting her career as a social worker, she earned a master's degree from the

University of Delaware The University of Delaware (colloquially UD or Delaware) is a public land-grant research university located in Newark, Delaware. UD is the largest university in Delaware. It offers three associate's programs, 148 bachelor's programs, 121 ma ...

in 1970. She earned a Ph.D. in literature from the

University of California, San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego is t ...

in 1977. She has received funding from the National Endowment of the Arts and has won a Pushcart Prize, the

Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Award The Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Award, also known as the Pacific Northwest Book Award (PNBA), is an annual award presented by the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association to recognize "excellence in writing" from the American Pacif ...

, and the first Anahid Literary Award for an American writer of

Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian Diaspora, Armenian communities across the ...

descent.Polk, James (November 11, 1990)
In short: Fiction.
''

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''Staff report (September 19, 1999). Booksellers trade show comes to Spokane. '' Spokane Spokesman-Review'' Her sons are composer

Bear McCreary Bear McCreary (born February 17, 1979) is an American musician and composer of film, television, and video game scores based in Los Angeles, California. His work includes the scores of the television series ''Battlestar Galactica'' (2004), ''Age ...

and singer/musician Brendan McCreary.

Selected works

;As Laura Kalpakian *''The Great Pretenders'' (Penguin Group, 2019), *''American Cookery'' (St. Martin's Griffin, 2007) *''The Memoir Club'' (St. Martin's Griffin, 2005) *''Educating Waverly'' (William Morrow, 2002) *''The Delinquent Virgin'' (Graywolf Press, 1999) *''Steps and Exes: a novel of family'' (Bard, 1999) *''Caveat'' (John F. Blair, 1998) *''Cosette: the sequel to Les Misérables'' (HarperCollins, 1995) *''Graced Land'' (Grove Weidenfeld, 1992) *''Dark Continent and Other Stories'' (Viking, 1989) *''Crescendo'' (Random House, 1987) *''The Swallow Inheritance'' (Headline, 1987) *''Fair Augusto and Other Stories'' (Graywolf Press, 1986) *''These Latter Days'' (Times Books, 1985) *''Beggars and Choosers'' (Little, Brown, 1978) ;As Juliet Jackson *''Belle Haven'' (Viking, 1990) ;As Carenna Jane Greye *''Tiger Hill'' (Piatkus Books, 1985)

References

External links

Laura A. Kalpakian Papers, ca. 1980-
via

Online Archive of California The California Digital Library (CDL) was founded by the University of California in 1997. Under the leadership of then UC President Richard C. Atkinson, the CDL's original mission was to forge a better system for scholarly information management a ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kalpakian, Laura Living people 1945 births American social workers American memoirists American women memoirists American writers of Armenian descent 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American women writers Writers from Long Beach, California University of California, Riverside alumni University of Delaware alumni University of California, San Diego alumni 20th-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century pseudonymous writers Pseudonymous women writers