Michael Barakiva is an Armenian/Israeli American theater director and writer who lives in New York City with his husband. His first novel, One Man Guy, published by Macmillan (FSG), was ranked the #1 Gay Young Adult novel on Goodreads in 2014, was named to the Rainbow List and Family Equality Council’s Book Nook and was released in Brazil by LeYa. The stand-alone sequel, Hold My Hand, was released in May 2019. Keepers of the Stones and Stars, a queer protagonist contemporary epic fantasy (also Macmillan, FSG, will be published in May of 2024.

Michael is the Founding Artistic Director of The Upstart Creatures, which creates community through theatre, food, and social justice.

His other writing includes: The Nature of Things (Sloan/EST Project commission); Paradise Lost, a two-part adaptation for the stage of Milton’s epic poem, commissioned by Red Bull Theatre Company (semi-finalist, Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference); Stringy Theory, co-authored with Sarah Braunstein and Amy Boyce Holtcamp (Connotation Press).

As a theatre director, Michael has worked all over the country staging classics and developing new work. He is an avid board game player. Education: Vassar College, The Juilliard School.

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