Milanka Šulejić is a Serbian-American writer, author, and storyteller from Wisconsin whose work explores family, cultural memory, migration, heritage, folklore, place, and the stories passed between generations. Her writing moves between literary nonfiction, memoir, fiction, folklore, and personal narrative, often exploring what remains after people, places, and moments have changed.
She is the author of The Ghost Girl Who Never Fully Left, a funny, tender, slightly haunted collection about memory, loneliness, relationships, sensitivity, and the invisible things we carry with us. Her work has appeared in publications including Written Tales Magazine, Sundial Magazine, Tales from the Moonlit Path, Phantom Flash Fiction, and Gone Lawn, with forthcoming work in Književne novine in Serbia. She is also a regular columnist for Anglozine and is currently developing What We Carry, a literary project exploring family history, language, migration, cultural inheritance, and belonging across generations.
Every October, I begin thinking about which haunted woman I would be. This is not the sort of question most people ask themselves. Most people are probably thinking about costumes.…
I love Halloween. There. I said it. Not in the casual way people say they like Halloween because they enjoy pumpkin pie or because their children dress up once a…
The first time I saw the box, I thought it was beautiful, which should probably have been enough of a warning, although I have never been particularly good at recognizing…
The first time my reflection blinked, I was seven. I told my mother. She slapped me. Not hard. Just enough to teach me that some things should never be repeated.…
There are things you inherit from your family that don't show up in photographs. You can inherit someone's eyes.Someone else's hands.A crooked smile that appears in three generations of wedding…
The costume was in a box labeled HALLOWEEN in my mother's handwriting. I found it three months after she died. There were other things in the box. A string of…