Oksana Marafioti

Oksana Marafioti (nee Kopylenko) is an American writer and educator of Romani and Armenian descent. She is the author of American Gypsy: A Memoir (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2012), which has been translated into Czech.

Biography

Marafioti holds a BA in Film and an MFA in Creative Writing. She is also a classically trained pianist and has studied music, film, and literature in both the United States and Europe.[1]

Her works have appeared in Slate[2], Time,[3], Immigrant Voices Vol.II (Penguin Random House, 2015), The Los Angeles Times, The Rumpus, and numerous anthologies, and has been featured on NPR, C‑SPAN, and various international media outlets.

She was the recipient of the Library of Congress Kluge Fellowship in 2012–2013 and has presented her research at institutions including the Library of Congress, Columbia University, Harvard University, and Central European University. In 2020, she was awarded the Picador Guest Professorship in Literature and American Studies at the University of Leipzig in Germany.[4] She has received additional fellowships and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Nevada Arts Council.

Along with many interviews and panel appearances, Oksana has presented her research on Magical Realism In Soviet Russia at the Library of Congress in 2013[5] and participated in the C-SPAN panel discussion on race and ethnicity in 2015.[6] In 2018, Oksana founded Lounge Writers, an online creative writing studio that offers classes by award-winning and best-selling authors to help writers of all levels explore and enhance their craft.

In addition to her writing, Marafioti is a frequent speaker on topics related to creative writing, minority representation, and inclusive storytelling.[7]

References

  1. ^ Peterson, Kristen (July 11, 2012), "Growing up Gypsy: 'They see you as a thief and a fortune-teller'", Las Vegas Weekly, retrieved August 12, 2012
  2. ^ "Why TLC's My Big Fat American Gypsy Wedding Doesn't Represent the Romani". Slate. May 15, 2012. Retrieved October 20, 2023.
  3. ^ "Roma Writer: Actually, Stealing Children Isn't Our Favorite Pastime". Time. October 23, 2013. Retrieved October 20, 2023.
  4. ^ "Picador Guest Professorship". Picador. Retrieved October 20, 2023.
  5. ^ "Magical Realism in Russia: How Ancestry Worship, Shamanism & Christianity Shaped the Nation". Library of Congress. May 16, 2013. Retrieved October 20, 2023.
  6. ^ "Panel Discussion on Race and Ethnicity". CSPAN. October 17, 2015. Retrieved October 20, 2023.
  7. ^ "Oksana Marafioti". Nevada Arts Council. Retrieved 2025-12-29.

Further reading

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