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2026 Reading Challenge

2026

READING

CHALLENGE

Margo Littell has read 9 of 50 books.

18%

Margo Orlando Littell

Goodreads Author

Born

in The United States

October 29

Website

http://www.margoorlandolittell.com

Twitter

margolittell

Genre

Fiction

Member Since

June 2007

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I grew up in a small southwestern Pennsylvania town where crumbling mansions are all that remain of the coal-and-coke wealth from the early twentieth century, when the town led the United States in millionaires per capita. Now, nearly half the population lives at or below the poverty level, and haunting, once-splendid buildings in the old downtown can be purchased for a song. After more than two decades of living in New York City, Barcelona, Northern California, and New Jersey, I've settled down in Pittsburgh with my husband and two teenage daughters.

I started writing obsessively as soon as I learned to write, in a Cabbage Patch diary I filled with critical minutia like “We get to have pop at Grandma’s.” Thousands of journal pages followed I grew up in a small southwestern Pennsylvania town where crumbling mansions are all that remain of the coal-and-coke wealth from the early twentieth century, when the town led the United States in millionaires per capita. Now, nearly half the population lives at or below the poverty level, and haunting, once-splendid buildings in the old downtown can be purchased for a song. After more than two decades of living in New York City, Barcelona, Northern California, and New Jersey, I've settled down in Pittsburgh with my husband and two teenage daughters.

I started writing obsessively as soon as I learned to write, in a Cabbage Patch diary I filled with critical minutia like “We get to have pop at Grandma’s.” Thousands of journal pages followed, and then, eventually, poetry. I was serious about my efforts, and in high school I attended the Pennsylvania School for the Arts. It’s funny how bits from the far past sometimes resurface: a poem I heard during my poetry classes that summer--over twenty years ago now--wound up becoming the epigraph of Each Vagabond By Name.

I began writing short stories at the University of Dayton and went on to receive an MFA from Columbia, where I taught undergraduate composition and wrote a collection of novellas. After a few years working as an editor in New York City, I sold nearly everything I owned, quit my job, and followed my boyfriend to Spain--and then to California and then back to Brooklyn. Somewhere in all that, we got married and had kids. Life took over for a while, freelance editing and professional resume writing and house buying and child rearing, but in 2011 I turned one of my novellas into a full-length novel that would become Each Vagabond By Name.

Inspired again by southwestern Pennsylvania, I published a second novel set in the area in 2020, The Distance from Four Points.

I’m driven to write about characters who are rooted to a place and who, even if they succeed at leaving, feel pulled toward home for one reason or another. I find inspiration in odd rummage-sale finds, visits to my hometown, and newspaper articles that give a glimpse of quiet struggles and preoccupations that are just to the side of the expected thing. ...more

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Margo Orlando Littell’s books

Average rating: 4.09 · 475 ratings · 105 reviews · 2 distinct works • Similar authors

	Each Vagabond By Name 4.02 avg rating — 316 ratings — published 2016 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Distance from Four Points 4.22 avg rating — 159 ratings — published 2020 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Margo Orlando Littell's Blog

An Extraordinary Fall

It’s October, my favorite month, the month that always puts me straight back into the world of Each Vagabond by Name. “It was an ordinary fall until the gypsies came,” that novel begins. Of course, fall 2020 is anything but ordinary. And amid so much global unrest and turmoil, I undertook a monumental change last month and moved back to Pennsylvania, where I haven’t lived since I was ei

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Margo’s Recent Updates

Margo Littell entered a giveaway Strangers: A Memoir of Marriage by Belle Burden 50 copies available, ends on April 14, 2026 Enter to win »
Mar 15, 2026 10:05AM · like · see giveaway · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Strangers by Belle Burden. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Strangers by Belle Burden <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Margo Littell rated a book really liked it The Little Book of the Hidden People: Twenty Stories of Elves from Icelandic Folklore by Alda Sigmundsdóttir (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
I read this as I prepared for a trip to Iceland. These are less like stories than they are like someone’s strange dreams.
Mar 08, 2026 11:39AM · like · see review
Margo Littell rated a book really liked it What Kind of Woman: Poems by Kate Baer (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
I found this poet after reading “New Year” online somewhere. That poem remains a favorite, and I found other gems here too.
Mar 08, 2026 11:38AM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of What Kind of Woman by Kate Baer. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — What Kind of Woman by Kate Baer <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Margo Littell rated a book really liked it What Kind of Woman: Poems by Kate Baer (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
I found this poet after reading “New Year” online somewhere. That poem remains a favorite, and I found other gems here too.
Mar 08, 2026 11:37AM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of What Kind of Woman by Kate Baer. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — What Kind of Woman by Kate Baer <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Margo Littell started reading The Little Book of the Hidden People: Twenty Stories of Elves from Icelandic Folklore by Alda Sigmundsdóttir (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Mar 07, 2026 09:13AM · like
Margo Littell rated a book it was amazing Otherwise: New and Selected Poems by Jane Kenyon	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Absolutely beautiful collection. She writes about life and death and rural life in a way that is singularly powerful, moving, and true. I had no idea she died so young. I will reread now with that haunting knowledge.
Mar 06, 2026 04:43PM · like · see review
Margo Littell wants to read Snowblind (Dark Iceland, #1) by Ragnar Jónasson (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Mar 05, 2026 03:51PM · like
Margo Littell wants to read Why Did You Lie? by Yrsa Sigurdardottir	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Mar 05, 2026 03:48PM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Why Did You Lie? by Yrsa Sigurdardottir. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Why Did You Lie? by Yrsa Sigurdardottir <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Margo Littell wants to read Names for the Sea: Strangers in Iceland by Sarah Moss (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Mar 05, 2026 03:46PM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Names for the Sea by Sarah Moss. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Names for the Sea by Sarah Moss <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Margo Littell rated a book really liked it Goodbye, Vitamin by Rachel Khong (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Moving and even funny at times.
Mar 05, 2026 01:08PM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Goodbye, Vitamin by Rachel Khong. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Goodbye, Vitamin by Rachel Khong <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">

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