About Celeste Anchor

Celeste Anchor writes historical fiction about women at the margins of the archive. Her novels are set along the Atlantic coast of early modern Europe — Brittany, Basque Country, the Azores — drawn from a decade of archival research and an abiding suspicion that the official record left out the most interesting parts.

She came to fiction through academic history, and the transition involved exactly as much unlearning as it sounds. She now lives by the sea, writes in the mornings, and maintains that the best primary sources are always the ones written in the margins of other primary sources.

Her debut, The Iron Meridian, was longlisted for the Historical Fiction Prize. Saltwater Saints is her second novel. The Last Cartographer — her most personal book yet — is due in March 2026.