Narine Abgaryan

Narine Abgaryan (Նարինե Յուրիի Աբգարյան (Наринэ Абгарян; born in Berd, Tavoush Province, Armenia on January 14, 1971) is a Russian writer and blogger of Armenian origin. In 2011, Abgaryan was a nominee of Big Book and Laureate of Yasnaya Polyana Literary Award, Russia, in 2016.

She is the author of Manyunya, People Who Are Always With Me, Three Apples Fell from the Sky, Simon, and others. In 2020, The Guardian named her among the brightest authors of Europe.

Biography
Abgaryan was born in Berd, Tavush Province, Armenia, to a family of a doctor and a teacher. She is the oldest among the five children. Her paternal grandfather was an Armenian refugee from Western Armenia, and her grandmother was a native of Eastern Armenia. Her maternal grandfather was also an Armenian, a native of Karabakh, and grandmother was Russian, a native of the Arkhangelsk region of Russia.

She has a son Emil Mednikov born in 1995.

Education
In 1988, Abgaryan finished high school in Berd, Armenia. She also attended music school where specialized in the piano. In 1993, she graduated from Yerevan Brusov University of Languages. She majored in Russian language and literature teaching. She later moved to Moscow where she worked as an accountant and a seller.

Literary life
Abgaryan became a blogger in LiveJournal. The stories about a little girl called Manuynya fascinated writer Lara Gall, and she introduced the author to the editor of Astrel-SPb Publishing house. The autobiographical novel Manyunya received The Manuscript of the Year Russian national literary award. Later, the author went on writing a trilogy about the girl called Manyunya. In 2012, Simeon Andreich, Manuscript in Scrawls– was published, illustrated by Victoria Kirdiy. In 2014, Chocolate Granddad was published, co-authored with Valentin Postnikov. It is the only book that she calls a children's book. In August 2015, Abgaryan was called one of two laureates of the Alexander Grin Literature Award "for her outstanding contribution to the national literature development".

In March 2020, her novel Three Apples Fell from the Sky was translated into English by Lisa C. Hayden and published by Oneworld Publications.

Manyunya was staged by SamArt Youth Theatre, Russia. In 2021, filming for a TV adaptation of Manyunya began, and in 2023, work began on an animated adaptation of Manyunya by Sarik Andreasyan.

Awards

 * 2011 – the Manuscript of the Year Award for Manyunya
 * 2011 – a nominee for Big Book Award of 2011.
 * 2013 – Baby-Нoc Award.
 * 2015 – Alexander Grin Russian Literary Award for an outstanding contribution to the development of Russian literature expressed in the creation of a particularly significant literary work, or for the works in general.
 * 2016 – Yasnaya Polyana Award in nomination XXI Century for the novel Three Apples Fell from the Sky.

Her collection of short stories "Semyon Andreevich, Chronicle in Scribbles" was named the best children's book of the last decade in Russia.