Ariel Djanikian was born in Philadelphia and attended the University of Pennsylvania. She holds an MFA from the University of Michigan and is the previous recipient of a Fulbright grant, Meijer Fellowship, Cowden Award, and Hopwood Award. She is the author of the novel The Office of Mercy, and her writing has appeared in Tin House, Alaska Quarterly Review, Glimmer Train, The Millions, and The Rumpus. Her novel, The Prospectors, is forthcoming from William Morrow in Fall of 2023. In addition to Philadelphia and Ann Arbor, she has lived in Madison, WI, Irvine, CA, and Chapel Hill, NC. She currently lives near DC with her husband and children and teaches fiction writing at Georgetown University. She is Armenian-American and her last name is pronounced Ja-NICK-ee-uhn (yes, the “D” is silent). Contact Ariel via Jenni Ferrari-Adler at Union Literary jenni@unionliterary.com or directly at arieldja@gmail.com. Find out more about Ariel here.