I lived in Europe and the US for more than 25 years, and am fluent in Italian and French, allowing me to delve into the best of Australian, Italian, French and American literature. I began writing with courses at Georgetown University and developed distinct but varied voices I employ as a writer—incorporating the superstition and traditions of rural Italy, the dark interiority of the American Deep South and the semi-innocence of rural life in Australia. I also write from the point of view of a suburban American woman and mother and a Feminist Westerner living in Pakistan. My husband’s childhood memories have resulted in a set of stories set there. I have been writing full-time over the past ten years, the past five having been dedicated to researching and writing my novel, Walking to Karachi which won a Varuna-HarperCollins Award. In writing short stories, I experience moments of sheer delight and also shock in devising something rather dark. The short story allows me to shed light on aspects I find most interesting: exploring loyalty and betrayal, the interior world in conflict with the exterior, creating unique characters to burden with a story and exploring landscape as a means of revealing not only setting and atmosphere but also character. My short fiction has been published in numerous American and Australian literary journals. Anthologies include three volumes of FourW, There Is No Mystery and Red Cat Country (Ginninderra Press.).