Joanne Szilagyi

Joanne Szilagyi

is a fiction writer and a recent graduate from Oxford University, where she researched the treatment of diverse literature in publishing. Her short fiction has been commended by the New Voices Award from PEN Canada, where she was made an honourary member, and the Oxford-BNU Award chaired by Nobel Laureate Mo Yan. Her writing has been published in The Isis and Oxford Review of Books.

Jo is currently working on her debut novel, The Guest People, which has received support from Kundiman, the Canada Council for the Arts, and the de Groot Foundation. She is represented by Lisette Verhagen at Peters Fraser + Dunlop.

Awards & Fellowships

The deGroot Foundation, Courage to Write Grant - Writer of Note Recipient, 2022.

Regent’s Park College, Oxford-BNU Award in Creative Writing - Highly Commended, 2021.

Canada Council for the Arts, Research and Creation Grants, 2020, 2021.

University of East Anglia, David TK Wong Fellowship Shortlist, 2021.

Banff Centre for Arts & Creativity, Writing Residency, 2018.

Iowa Writers' Workshop, Graduate Fiction Workshop, 2018.

Humber College, Budd Sugarman Foundation Scholarship for Exceptional Promise, 2018.

RBC/PEN Canada New Voices Award, Fiction Shortlist, 2018.

Designated a member of PEN Canada, 2018.

ROOM Poetry & Fiction Contest 2018, Fiction Longlist, 2018.

Diaspora Dialogues, Fiction Mentee, 2018.

2018 Summer Literary Seminars Contest, Finalist, 2018.