Anca L. Szilágyi
Anca L. Szilágyi is a fiction writer and essayist. Her work appears in Orion Magazine, Lilith Magazine, The Los Angeles Review of Books, and Electric Literature, among other publications. Anca is the recipient of grants and fellowships from Vermont Studio Center, 4Culture, Made at Hugo House, and the Jack Straw Cultural Center. She was awarded the inaugural Artist Trust / Gar LaSalle Storyteller Award. Daughters of the Air, her debut novel, released from Lanternfish Press in December 2017. Her second novel is forthcoming in 2022.
Works
Daughters of the Air
Tatiana “Pluta” Spektor was a mostly happy, if awkward, young girl—until her sociologist father was disappeared during Argentina’s Dirty War. Sent a world away by her grieving mother to attend boarding school outside New York City, Pluta wrestles alone with the unresolved tragedy and at last runs away: to the streets of Brooklyn in 1980, where she figuratively—and literally—spreads her wings. Told with haunting fabulist imagery by debut novelist Anca L. Szilágyi, this searing tale of love, loss, estrangement, and coming of age is an unflinching exploration of the personal devastation wrought by political repression.
Daughters of the Air
Awards and Recognition
- 2017 Lilith Magazine Fiction Prize
- 2015 Artist Trust / Gar LaSalle Storyteller Award
- 2015 Jack Straw Fellowship
- 2014 4Culture Art Project Award
- 2012-13 Made at Hugo House Fellowship
- 2007 Vermont Studio Center Artist's Grant
Press and Media Mentions
- “Anca Szilágyi’s Daughters of the Air is a fantastic debut…a product of alchemy, a creation of unearthly talents.” -Paul Constant, The Seattle Review of Books, “2017 in Review: The Seattle Novels That Made My Year”
- “A striking debut from a writer to watch, Daughters of the Air is gritty yet gorgeous, severe yet convivial, as it navigates uncertain times in a treacherous world. ” -Dave Wheeler, Shelf Awareness
- “Anca L. Szilágyi’s intense debut novel, ‘Daughters of the Air,’ locates a deeply personal story against the surreal backdrop of [Argentina’s Dirty War].” -Ellen Emry Heltzel, The Seattle Times
- "Anca Szilágyi wins the first Gar LaSalle Storyteller Award" by Paul Constant, The Seattle Review of Books
Website
Location
Chicago, IL
Author Contact
Category
Fiction & Literature, Essays