​

"I write darkness to draw attention to the light."

Blair Nishkian was born and raised in a small town in the Sierra Nevada mountains. She grew up in a home built by the hands of her parents. Her father was an artist and philosopher, while her mother was a carpenter. She grew up in a subculture of aging civil rights activists and a tight-knit, small mountain community.

In her time, her experiences with debilitating mental illness in both herself, friends, and family members led her down the path of an artist. It has always been her dream to explore the depths of consciousness through fiction and thus cultivate understanding between human beings.

She is inspired by the works of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Mo Yan, Angela Carter, Jim Henson, Neal Stephenson, Ursula K. Le Guin, Tolkien, Jane Austen, and a whole lot of poets. In terms of philosophy, she loves Laozi and the Dao De Jing, Zhuangzi and the Yi Jing, and listening to Alan Watts lectures.

 

For two years, she was a preschool teacher in Zhengzhou, China. There, she spent time immersing herself in local culture and learning Mandarin -- she also met her wife. The two now live in a small home in Washington state.

She has an MFA in fiction and has mentored directly under authors such as Caitlyn R. Kiernan, Ben Percy, Gayle Brandeis, and Alan Heathcock.