Irina VanPatten
Irina VanPatten is an American Pacific Northwest writer with Eastern European roots. Her writing style marries the best of these two worlds. She draws from the rich roots of her culture but bakes her own American literary cake with a blended sense of humor: sharp yet warm; edgy yet tender. She brings her perspective of past life experiences from behind the Iron Curtain, creating a unique blend of East versus West points of view in her writing.
She is the author of Mail-Order Family, which is a charming and relatable tribute to her family’s resilience and a heartfelt love story about two misfits.
She also writes about serious, timeless subjects. She is the author of the book Welcome to America, Welcome Home, which is based on multiple interviews with American immigrants of different backgrounds and cultures. Experts, lawyers, professors, activists, refugees, and asylum seekers share their personal stories and reveal the hardships of those who try to assimilate and succeed in America.
Irina is a contributor to a short story collection about love called From Lullaby to Love Songs and Funeral Dirges. Her story I Love You Russian Style explores the misconceptions of love in different cultures in a heartwarming, funny way. Her other passion is writing for the English-Romanian language magazine Hora in America, which focuses on stories from her community.
She volunteers as a translator for the Northwest Immigration Rights Project, collaborating with the division that takes on cases under the Violence Against Women Act.
Works
Mail-Order Family
Mail-Order Family is a charming tribute to Irina's family’s resilience. Her story takes on life challenges with a Russianesque sense of humor and heart, and culminates in an unlikely love story between misfits literarily two worlds apart.
Irina, a spunky divorcée with two young children, is trying to build a new life on the ruins of a collapsed Soviet Union empire. When her world is turned upside down in the small Eastern European country of Moldova, Irina desperately looks for a way out. By chance, she finds out about online dating and discovers a world that is nothing like she expected. Hilarity is assured as she tries to sort out the good men from the bad with her own family constantly in her way.
Finally, she captures the heart of an American named David. East eventually meets West, and worlds collide as the tall, loud, and unconventional American tries to fit in with Irina’s family, and Irina discovers that David is far from a charming prince.
As Irina’s own Cinderella story is about to begin, she watches in horror on TV as the Twin Towers go down in flames, and her hopes of getting to America burn with them. She’s back in her rags, right where she started. But her journey towards America is far from over.
Irina VanPatten’s writing style is a marriage between Eastern and Western points of view, encapsulating the best of both worlds. A mixture of David Sedaris and Anton Chekhov, Mail-Order Family takes readers to unexpected places, and questions everything we thought we knew about international families and mail-order love.
Welcome to America, Welcome Home
Awards and Recognition
- Spring 2022 The BookFest Second Place Award for Mail-Order Family in category True Story/Memoir
Website
Location
EVERETT, WA
Author Contact
Category
Humor, General Non-Fiction, Journalism, Biography & History
agent Contact
2068542820