Writer
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!
Writers attending the 2022 AWP Conference in Philadelphia in March: I will be presenting on a panel called “What Kind of Times Are These? Immigrant Poets and the New Politics of Resistance” with poets Olga Livshin, Anna Halberstadt, Mariya Deykute, and Larissa Shmailo. If you attend the conference, I hope to see you there!
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,” which appeared online earlier this year in The Rumpus, will be reprinted in the upcoming anthology Voices on the Move: An Anthology by and about Refugees, available for preorder now from Solis Press. This multi-genre anthology explores the nuances of displacement. About the book, novelist Samrat Upadhyay writes:
“Voices on the Move is a moving, must-read artistic exploration of migration and the trauma of displacement. Through diverse modes of expression—poetry, fiction, photography, play—the voices in this collection present the multitudinous ways with which we experience uprooting and belonging. The book is a jewel, a chronicle of our times, an intense awareness of humanity’s suffering and its yearning for home.”
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.
Lana Spendl 