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 forbears and his second-most-beloved maternal presence fled. Nick’s slide into poignant memory and long-held secrets drives him to celebrate the laughter and collapse of innocence that bind him to his lost loved ones, his clients, and the daughters he hopes will greet their future with clarity and stubborn humanism.
Stephanie Cotsirilos is an author, lawyer, and performing artist who draws on an extended family heritage covering Greece, Peru, and Asia. Her novella, My Xanthi (Los Galesburg), was released in late 2021. In 2022, her personal essay will join those of Richard Russo, Roxana Robinson, and others in Breaking Bread (Beacon Press). Cotsirilos has been a published finalist in Mississippi Review’s Prize in Fiction and was twice nominated for the Pushcart Prize, with work appearing in McSweeney’s, The New Guard, and Brilliant Flash Fiction. In a prior career on and off Broadway, she authored songs and scripts produced at Manhattan Theatre Club, Playwrights Horizons, and elsewhere. She subsequently wrote and edited for Yale Law journals and various media. An alumna of The Writers Hotel yearly conference, she has created multi-cultural, multi-arts writers’ series, and was Patrice Krant Fellow in residence at Storyknife’s inaugural retreat for women writers in Alaska.