Biography of Author Presenting at Accio 2005

Mike Gray

Mama says I was born in Chicago, and pending proof to the contrary, I'll stick to her story, even if I can't actually remember living there. But I *do* have childhood memories of St. Louis, Los Angeles, Boston, Denver, Budapest, London and a town in Sicily called Sciacca. And adult memories of Rome (where I met my Swiss wife, Susan), Amsterdam (where I finished an MA in theology at a baptist school), Bern (where my daughter Natascha was born) and Basel (where my son Evan was born). I've been living in Zürich for the last six years, working for an Anabaptist church and finishing a Lizentiat in theology at the catholic theological faculty in Fribourg, Switzerland. I now have a part time job for the Swiss reformed state church - and if I can just finish that darn Lizentiat in Fribourg, I'll be able to start a dissertation on Harry Potter at the university of Zürich. There was a time when I was extremely active in the HP fandom under the name of Aberfoth's Goat. I was an early member of the HPfGU community, started a website to catalogue JKR's interviews, wrote part of a really obtuse fanfic (called the Viagramus Curse, about a middle aged, overweight Harry on a drinking binge), had an awful lot of fun and even made some great friends. Since picking up studies I've run short of time for my online pursuits, but I'm hoping it'll all come back once I get to work on that dissertation.