Julia MacDonnell has published two novels, a story collection, and countless articles, essays and book reviews. She developed her quirky vision and questioning voice over a lifetime of creative exploration. The second oldest of eight children in a Scotch-Irish Catholic family, she broke away early, rebelling against her family’s rigidity and pious prayerfulness. Familial relationships have remained an abiding concern throughout MacDonnell’s writing life.
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Big NYC Book Award, 2021
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National Indie Excellence Award Finalist, 2021
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American Booksellers Association, 2014
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“Top 20 Books (so far!) This year," 2014
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Pushcart Prize Nominations, 2015, 1999
“I meditate on the experiences of ordinary people.
I hover deep inside their private lives, lives that almost always mirror larger issues in the world. My characters – like those in my story collection, and the female protagonists of my novels - are multi-layered and contradictory; an amalgam of good and evil. They are often confused about their place in the world and they struggle to find a stable sense of self. They obsess over fraught relationships, moral yearnings, crazy loves and flimsy hatreds. No matter how difficult their situations are, they confront experience with sharp eyes, ironic wit, and a potent sense - sometimes furious, other times befuddled - of their own historical matrix.”
— Julia MacDonnell