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Julia MacDonnell

Goodreads Author

Born

in Island Falls, Maine, The United States

Website

http://juliamacdonnell.com/

Genre

Fiction, Memoir, Nonfiction

Member Since

August 2013

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/juliamacdonnell

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Julia MacDonnell’s short story collection, The Topography of Hidden Stories, has just come out from Fomite Press. Readers who loved her novel, Mimi Malloy, At Last!, are sure to enjoy this group of thirteen stories about the lives and struggles of creative, rebellious women during the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Early reviewers of Topography have noted MacDonnell’s “exquisite word craft” and “the depth of her compassion for the human condition, especially within families.” Another said “each of these powerfully vivid stories will touch your emotions deeply…any one of the stories could be lengthened to full novels” because of the compelling subject matter. This collection, the reviewer added, ‘is a true testament to the incredible Julia MacDonnell’s short story collection, The Topography of Hidden Stories, has just come out from Fomite Press. Readers who loved her novel, Mimi Malloy, At Last!, are sure to enjoy this group of thirteen stories about the lives and struggles of creative, rebellious women during the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Early reviewers of Topography have noted MacDonnell’s “exquisite word craft” and “the depth of her compassion for the human condition, especially within families.” Another said “each of these powerfully vivid stories will touch your emotions deeply…any one of the stories could be lengthened to full novels” because of the compelling subject matter. This collection, the reviewer added, ‘is a true testament to the incredible emotional strength of women.’
That’s something MacDonnell knows about first hand. She grew up the second oldest of eight children – six daughters - in a Scotch-Irish Catholic family. But she broke away early, rebelling against her family’s rigidity and pious prayerfulness. She developed her quirky vision and questioning voice over a lifetime of creative exploration that included dance, theater and music. But familial relationships have remained her abiding concern.
The poet and memoirist and mentor Molly Peacock had said MacDonnell “writes with a psychological savvy and family wisdom few others have. Her words vibrate to the thought waves between sisters, mothers and daughters, parents and children, wives and husbands. Her stories tug at a single threat until a whole fabric unravels, and then they work the miracle of reweaving.”
Her second novel, Mimi Malloy, At Last!, was published by Picador in 2014 to widespread praise in the national media. People Magazine called it, “Cathartic, suspenseful and droll…Mimi offers a hopeful take on both old age and bad blood.” Bestselling author Sally Koslow said Mimi, the title character, ‘calls to mind a Boston Irish Olive Kitteridge, as peppery as she is bighearted.” And Mary Kay Andrews said, “I wouldn’t trust anybody who couldn’t fall for Mimi Malloy, At Last!”
The novel was chosen as in ‘Indie Next’ selection by the American Booksellers Association and appeared on many ‘best of’ lists soon after publication.
MacDonnell’s first novel, A Year of Favor, was published in 1994 by William Morrow & Co. Publishers Weekly called it, ‘a compelling debut,’ and Kirkus Reviews praised it as “Powerful first fiction…a convincing evocation of life in a Central American country…and a compelling portrait of a gutsy, post-feminist heroine.”
Readers and reviewers have compared her writing to that of Elizabeth Strout, Sue Monk Kidd, Jojo Moyes and Andre Dubus. Her various awards and accolades include two individual fiction fellowships from the N.J. State Council on the Arts, a Pulitzer Traveling Fellowship, a New York Press Club Nellie Bly Cub Reporter of the Year award, a John S. and James L. Knight Foundation Excellence in Journalism Fellowship, a N. J. Press Association Public Service Journalism Award, two Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation Fellowships for writing residencies at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and three Wall of Fame Teaching Awards at Rowan University in Glassboro, N.J., where she is professor emerita in the Department of Writing Arts.

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Combine Editions
Julia MacDonnell’s books

Average rating: 3.68 · 439 ratings · 106 reviews · 6 distinct works • Similar authors

	Mimi Malloy, At Last! 3.63 avg rating — 400 ratings — published 2014 — 8 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
	Hidden Girls: A Birth Mother's Story of Reunion & Reckoning 4.85 avg rating — 13 ratings — 3 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 Topography of Hidden Stories 4.58 avg rating — 12 ratings — 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
	Ich bin zu alt für diesen Scheiß: Roman by Julia MacDonnell (Goodreads Author), Elfriede Peschel (Translator) 3.25 avg rating — 12 ratings — published 2014 — 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
	A Year of Favor: A Novel 3.50 avg rating — 2 ratings — published 1994 — 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
	[ MIMI MALLOY, AT LAST! By MacDonnell, Julia ( Author ) Hardcover Apr-08-2014 by Julia MacDonnell (Goodreads Author), Unknown Author 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	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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Julia MacDonnell is currently reading

Witches' Dance

by Erin Eileen Almond (Goodreads Author)

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Mar 05, 2021 09:41AM

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Julia MacDonnell rated a book really liked it Practically Still a Virgin: An Adoption Memoir by Monica Hall (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
What can I say about Practically Still a Virgin, Monica Hall’s ‘adoption memoir,’ a book bursting with vivid details of its author’s traumatic early life in the boomtown of late-20th century Anchorage? At first, the title, a click-baiting phrase if e ...more
Oct 09, 2024 07:33AM · like · see review

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Quotes by Julia MacDonnell (?)

“twilight and smells of myrrh and ash, lingering, maybe, from some recent ritual. As I walk inside, bright sunlight dims to cool shadows. My eyes water. I move into the shadows feeling like I’m plummeting through time, falling back into the Middle Ages, me, the dancer and poet, the wild child rebel who loved to laugh and longed to be on the cutting edge of everything.”
― Julia MacDonnell, Hidden Girls: A Birth Mother's Story of Reunion & Reckoning

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