Anna Olswanger

Anna Olswanger based her first children's book, SHLEMIEL CROOKS, on a Yiddish newspaper article she uncovered about the attempted robbery of her great-grandfather’s kosher liquor store in St. Louis in 1919. This is the English translation of the article:

Reb Eliyahu Olschwanger Almost Robbed

Shlimazel crooks, their work was unsuccessful. Last Thursday at 3:00 a.m. in the middle of the night, several men drove to the saloon of Reb Eliyahu Olschwanger at the corner of 14th and Carr Streets. They opened the saloon and removed several barrels of brandy and beer. Mr. Mankel who lives on the second floor, upon hearing what was going on in the saloon, opened the window and began shouting for help. Benjamin Resnik from 1329 Carr Street, hearing the shouting, shot his revolver from his window. The band of crooks got scared and left everything, including their own horse and wagon and ran away. Police immediately came and took everything to the police station.

What could be funnier than crooks who left with less than they came with! From that Yiddish article, Anna created SHLEMIEL CROOKS (not Shlimazel Crooks like in the article, as she suspected that "shlemiel" was a more widely known word). After adding the ghost of Pharaoh, the prophet Elijah, and a talking horse to the story, she was in business. A family musical based on SHLEMIEL CROOKS premiered at New York's Merkin Concert Hall.

Anna's second book for young readers, GREENHORN, is an illustrated children’s novel inspired by a true story. Daniel, a young Holocaust survivor, arrives at a New York yeshiva in 1946 to study and live. He is carrying a small box, his only possession, which he never lets out of his sight. Daniel rarely talks, but the story’s narrator, a stutterer taunted by the other boys, comes to consider Daniel his friend. What’s in the box is a mystery, and the boys at the yeshiva are impatient with Daniel's secret. Only Aaron, the stutterer, reaches out to Daniel, and through their friendship, Daniel is able to let go of his box. Together, each boy finds his "voice." A free Discussion Guide and Classroom Guide for GREENHORN are available at the publisher's website: www.newsouthbooks.com/greenhorn.

Anna's third book, the graphic novel A VISIT TO MOSCOW was just published by West Margin Press in May, 2022.

Anna lives in the metropolitan New York area and is a literary agent. Visit her online at www.olswanger.com.

AWARDS

Sydney Taylor Honor Book (for SHLEMIEL CROOKS)

PJ Library Book (for SHLEMIEL CROOKS)

Koret International Jewish Book Award Finalist (for SHLEMIEL CROOKS)

F. Scott Fitzgerald Literary Conference Short Story Contest Award (for CHICKEN BONE MAN)

Audience Award Winner for Best Short Film Drama at the Morris and Mollye Fogelman International Jewish Film Festival (for the film adaptation of GREENHORN)