About
A native Chicagoan, Stephanie Cotsirilos taps a multiracial family and prior careers on Broadway and in law to write about injustice, humor, and resilience. She is author of the novella My Xanthi and essayist in Beacon Press’ award-winning anthology Breaking Bread: Essays from New England on Food, Hunger, and Family. Twice nominated for the Pushcart Prize, her work has appeared in McSweeney’s, Narrative, Mississippi Review, The New Guard and various media. Her songs and scripts were produced in New York. Invited to the 2023 Sewanee Writers Conference, she was previously Katahdin (formerly Patrice Krant) fellow in residence at Storyknife’s inaugural retreat for women writers in Alaska. She holds degrees in comparative literature, music, and law from Brown and Yale. She lives and writes in Portland, Maine.
Featured Work
My Xanthi, second edition
A Greek immigrant woman's wartime secrets teach a criminal defense lawyer about love's triumph over injustice.
My Xanthi brings together the clashing worlds of cantankerous, loveable criminal defense lawyer Nick Milonas: southern California where he lives with his Korean-American wife and twin daughters, the suburban Midwest where his proudly assimilating family raised him during the 1950s and 60s, and the bloody Greek history his forebears and his second-most-beloved maternal presence fled. Heard through her posthumous letters, Xanthi’s loving, cynical, heroic voice triggers Nick’s slide into memory and long-held secrets – driving him to embrace the laughter and collapse of innocence among his lost loved ones, his clients, his conscience, and the daughters he hopes will greet their future with clarity and stubborn humanism.
My Xanthi takes an unflinching look at the human heart in upheaval – and at what endures.
Other Works
Awards and Recognition
- Sewanee Writers Conference, 2023 “Invasion, Day 3,” finalist, Narrative Magazine Fall 2022 Story Contest, Story of the Week May, 2023 Katahdin (formerly Patrice Krant) Fellow in residence, inaugural Storyknife Writers Retreat, Alaska, 2021 “Wind. 風 Kaze,” semi-finalist, The New Guard Machigonne Fiction Contest, Vol. IX, 2021 “Alexandria Revisited,” longlist, Brilliant Flash Fiction Librarians’ Choice Writing Contest, 2020 “Triptych,” honorable mention, 49th New Millennium Award for Flash Fiction, 2020 “Little Buzzcut,” published finalist, Mississippi Review 2019 Prize in Fiction, 2019 “Wormhole,” finalist, 47th New Millennium Award for Flash Fiction, 2019 “Maine Thaw,” featured author, The New Guard’s BANG!, 2019 “Peepers,” Pushcart Prize nominee, Brilliant Flash Fiction, 2018 “Letter to an Archangel,” Pushcart Prize nominee, The New Guard Vol. VI, 2017
