Barev (hello), readers! Located in the South Caucasus is a little country called Armenia. There are many fascinating and tragic aspects to its history. For example, its alphabet is one of the most advanced alphabets in the world. And did you know that Armenians use coffee grounds to predict your future? Aside from these intriguing facts, a little over one hundred years ago, roughly 1.5 million Armenians faced one of history’s most unimaginable horrors: the Armenian Genocide. From 1915 until 1923, this grim event was executed by Turkish reform groups during the existence of the Ottoman Empire. Those who survived were forced to seek refuge in other parts of the world and begin new lives. To this day, Turkey refuses to be held accountable for the occurrence of these massacres.
Sadly, due to the lack of cultural representation, many people are still unaware that this country even exists. Taleen Voskuni noticed this and decided to use her love for the written word to give her people a voice. Voskuni is an Armenian-American writer who grew up in the Bay Area diaspora surrounded by a rich Armenian community and her ebullient family. She graduated from UC Berkeley with a BA in English and currently lives in San Francisco, working in tech. Other than a newfound obsession with writing romcoms, she spends her free time raising her kids, cultivating her garden, and enjoying her dark chocolate addiction. Sorry, Bro is her first published novel, and was released on January 31st, 2023. You can order a copy through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Penguin Random House, or East Bay Booksellers.
Throughout our email exchange, she filled me in about her debut novel and life as an Armenian-American writer. Not only does Voskuni use her writing to educate her readers about the genocide, but she also exposes the reality of being a closeted bisexual in an unaccepting society.
Me: Who are your biggest author influences and why?
Taleen: Jesse Q. Sutanto for her unmatched humor and brilliant plotting skills (plus her ability to draft so quickly!), Ashley Herring Blake for being able to create such complex characters that are so easy to fall in love with (seriously, in Delilah Green Doesn’t Care, I had crushes on both characters), and my friend and talented YA author, Andrew Shvarts, for his dynamic, hilarious Royal Bastards series. Though he writes YA fantasy, reading his books really helped me find my own voice and helped me write like me for the first time.
Me: What were your biggest challenges in writing this novel?
Taleen: The original version had way too many subplots going on at once. I had a hard time wrapping them all up in a satisfying way, and it was actually my agent who came up with a brilliant vision for simplifying it.
Me: What does your writing process look like?
Taleen: I write whenever I can. I have two kids (though, at the time of writing Sorry, Bro, only one kid) so I write when I’m not working or caring for the kiddos, which is not that much time. Nap time, lunchtime, after they sleep.
Me: What was your favorite thing about writing this novel?
Taleen: I absolutely loved letting the voice fly. I felt unafraid and confident inhabiting this voice in a way I hadn’t before, possibly because I didn’t try to make my writing fit into some mold of who I thought I should be writing like; it was just me. That, and being able to infuse it with Armenian culture.
Me: What is your favorite Armenian dish?
Taleen: The football kuftes [stuffed meatballs, usually made from ground lamb], deep fried meat deliciousness, or for a vegan treat, sarmas which many people around the world call dolma [grape leaves stuffed with rice, fresh herbs, and spices]. But sarmas made by an Armenian grandma are so different than the prepackaged dolmas you can buy at grocery stores. I added both of those foods in my book.
Me: What is your favorite Armenian sourj (coffee) brand?
Taleen: Henry’s House of Coffee! And they’re local to San Francisco.
Me: Tell us about Armenian coffee tasseography (i.e., coffee fortune-telling). What was your most interesting fortune?
Taleen: Armenian coffee is very thick, and you don’t drink the dregs, but you flip the cup over and allow them to drip over the sides of the coffee cup. After a short time, once it’s dried, you flip it over and your fortune can be read. It’s an old art form, passed down matrilineally, and taps into intuitive knowledge. Usually, someone else reads your fortune for you. My cup stuck to the saucer and the auntie (tantig) reading my fortune told me that it meant that someone was in love with me. It ended up being true but not the person I ended up with, luckily!
Me: What is/are your favorite place(s) in Armenia and why?
Taleen: I absolutely loved the Opera House and the square around it, being able to sip coffee outside late at night. I saw the most beautiful rendition of Aram Khachaturian’s Gayane ballet there; I will never forget the artistry of the dancers and the feeling of romance and tradition it filled me with. I also loved visiting Lake Sevan and eating the trout special to the lake. The entire countryside, anywhere, truly anywhere, felt like you could talk to someone and have it feel like home. One thing I regret is that I didn’t get to visit the Madenataran (manuscript library) because I was terribly ill the day our group visited. Next time for sure.
Me: What do you want your readers to know about the Armenian Genocide and how can we support the recognition of this tragic event?
Taleen: I’d love readers to understand that the Armenian Genocide is not simply an event of the past with no repercussions in the future. It’s a living, breathing tragedy that continues to terrorize the Armenian people. For instance, Armenia’s current border-neighbors, Turkey and Azerbaijan, often speak of “finishing the job” that was begun in 1915. Armenia is currently under threat, and the best way to support recognition of the tragic event is to hear Armenians’ calls for help when they need it (such as now, when part of Armenia is being blockaded by Azerbaijan), by calling up your reps to help aid Armenia, and sharing the news with others.
Me: Does Sorry, Bro accurately represent LGBTQIA+ life in Armenian communities? How so?
Taleen: Tough to speak about the whole Armenian community, but I do believe it accurately represents one subset, the type with a happier ending, which is possible. I know many families for which it is. However, there are still other families and pockets of communities that will not accept LGBTQIA+ people, even family members, and disown or ostracize them. I believe this is sadly common. There are writers and artists giving voice to the sadder outcomes, so I wanted to be a voice for the happier ones.
Me: What/Who was your inspiration behind writing an LGBTQIA+ rom-com and why?
Taleen: It’s hard to say why, I simply felt this was the story I needed to tell, the one that was burning within me. There was no straight love story in me, possibly because it’s been over-examined in my life. A queer story though? That was begging to be told.
Me: What do you want your readers to take away from Sorry, Bro?
Taleen: I do hope I will have sparked some curiosity about the modern Armenian-American experience, and some interest in basic Armenian history. I know many people don’t know about the Armenian Genocide so it’s one of my deepest aims to share that with the wider public, especially the fact that it’s still relevant today, like Nareh learns throughout the book. If some readers do even a basic google search about Armenian history after reading this book, I’ll be pleased. It might be nice if readers wonder why they have not heard about (or much about) the Armenian Genocide. There are some interesting answers there.
Me: Do you have any plans for your next novel?
Taleen: Yes! I was lucky enough to get a two-book deal with Berkely and there is a sneak peek of book 2, Lavash at First Sight, at the end of Sorry, Bro! I’m in the developmental editing process now, but I believe it should be out sometime in 2024!
Blurb of Sorry, Bro
When Nar’s odar (non-Armenian) boyfriend gets down on one knee and proposes to her in front of a room full of drunk San Francisco tech boys, she realizes it’s time to find someone who shares her idea of romance.
Enter Mom. Armed with plenty of mom guilt and an actual spreadsheet of Facebook-stalked Armenian men (complete with their height and weight), Mom convinces Nar to attend Explore Armenia, a month-long series of events in the city—line dancing (okay), cooking class (better), brandy tasting (better yet).
But it’s not the mom-approved playboy doctor or bro-slinging engineer that catches her eye at the very first gathering—it’s Erebuni, a woman as equally immersed in the witchy arts as she is in preserving her Armenian identity. Suddenly, with Erebuni as her wing-girl, the events feel like far less of a chore, and much more of an adventure. Who knew cooking up kuftes together could be so… sexy?
Erebuni helps Nar see the beauty of their shared culture, and makes her feel understood in a way she never has before. But there’s one teeny problem: Nar’s not exactly out as bisexual. Her mom doesn’t even want her wearing flats, how would she feel about Nar bringing home a woman? Nar is finally embracing the identities she’s stifled for years, but coming out could land her right in the center of the Armenian gossip mill, bringing lifelong shame to her mother.
The clock is ticking on Nar’s double life, though—the closing Explore Armenia banquet is coming up, and her entire extended family will be there, along with Erebuni. Her worlds collide. But Nar is determined to be brave, determined to claim her happiness: proudly Armenian, proudly bisexual, and proudly herself for the first time in her life.
To see/hear more about Taleen Voskuni, please visit:
Prose, Poetry, and Coffee 