Laura Kalpakian

Laura Anne Kalpakian (born June 28, 1945) ^[1]is an American author. She has also published under the pen names Juliet Fitzgerald^[2] and Carenna Jane Greye. She is known for her work in the memoir genre.

Life and career

Kalpakian was born in Long Beach, California, the daughter of Peggy (Kalpakian), a secretary, and William Johnson, a technical representative.^[3][4] She grew up in southern California. She earned her undergraduate degree from University of California, Riverside in 1967. After starting her career as a social worker, she earned a master's degree from the University of Delaware in 1970. She earned a Ph.D. in literature from the University of California, San Diego 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, and the first Anahid Literary Award for an American writer of Armenian descent.^[5][6]

Kalpakian's 1992 novel Graced Land was adapted into the TV movie The Woman Who Loved Elvis, directed by Bill Bixby and starring Roseanne Barr and Tom Arnold.^[7]

Her sons are composer Bear McCreary and singer/musician Brendan McCreary.

Selected works

As Laura Kalpakian

• The Great Pretenders (Penguin Group, 2019), ISBN 9781101990186 ^[8]
• 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)