Writer & Editor
Huge thanks to the editors of Barnstorm Journal for publishing my personal essay in their December issue! I wrote the piece years ago, after a memorable trip to Sedona. I’m thrilled it found such a beautiful home, and—as always—I’m grateful for our writing community and all the writers and editors out there who look over one another’s work with care. ❤️ You can read the piece on their site, as well as hear a recording of me reading an excerpt. Hope you enjoy it!
I’m honored that my book is included on this list of semifinalists for the 2022 Iron Horse Book Prize! Big thanks to Leslie Jill Patterson and to everyone over at Iron Horse Literary Review—both for this honor and for always pouring such immense care and attention into the process. 
And congrats to all the other semifinalists!!
I’m thrilled to be a semifinalist for the Ohio State University Press 2022 Non/Fiction Collection Prize! Big thanks to the editors, and congrats to this year’s winner!
Phenomenal writer Alina Stefanescu has reviewed Voices on the Move, the anthology of refugee writing to which I was honored to contribute in 2020. The book, edited by Domnica Radulescu and Roxana Cazan, is filled with impactful and diverse voices and includes a range of creative pieces. Stefanescu’s review, “The Aliens Created by Nation-States,” is available on WorldCityLit.
It was an honor last week to read my work at Slought in Philadelphia, with the Cheburashka Collective, in solidarity with Ukraine. Such well-being came from being around so many wonderful writers from Eastern Europe. I’m grateful that we had a pre-reading reception where we could connect and share stories. Thank you to the UPenn Comparative Literature, Jewish Studies, and Russian and East European Studies programs for making the evening possible!
I’m thrilled to announce that the anthology Voices on the Move, to which I contributed a personal essay last year, has just won first prize in nonfiction in the Oklahoma Writers’ Federation annual writing contest! Congrats to editors Roxana Cazan and Domnica Radulescu, and to all the other contributors!
My personal essay, “Geography of Peaks and Dips and Lights,” describes my return to Bosnia 18 years ago and appears today in The Rumpus. The piece was beautifully illustrated for The Rumpus by artist Susan Ito. This piece, I am excited to say, will also be reprinted later this year in the anthology Voices on the Move by Solis Press.
My new short story, “Family in the Foreign World,” appears online today in Epiphany’s Women Writing Women series. Many thanks to the wonderful writer and editor Rachel Lyon for the care she took with this piece!
Lana Spendl 