A searing, award-winning memoir that brings readers into the emotional heart of adoption loss ✦ and the silenced women of America's Baby Scoop Era of the late 1960s.
When Julia MacDonnell's relinquished son found her almost as soon as Massachusetts opened its sealed adoption records ✦ nearly half a century after his birth ✦ she expected reunion ✦ forgiveness, a blended family, and emergence from the secret that had shaped her entire adult life. That is not what happened.
Hidden Girls brings readers into the emotional heart of adoption loss, showing how the secrets and silence of closed adoption permanently twist kinship histories ✦ and reflects the stories of countless women who lost their babies to the Baby Scoop Era of the late 1960s.
"Julia MacDonnell puts flesh on the bones of one of the most shameful parts of recent U.S. history. Hidden Girls is an important, beautifully-told accounting of that terrible history, and a timely warning that we not repeat its mistakes."
✦ Kathryn Joyce, The Child Catchers: Rescue, Trafficking and the New Gospel of AdoptionFour decades of award-winning fiction, memoir, and short stories ✦ available across all major bookselling platforms worldwide.
Thirteen stories transforming ordinary conflicts into majesty through exquisite word craft and deep compassion for the human condition, especially within families.
People Magazine called it "Cathartic, suspenseful and droll… Mimi offers a hopeful take on both old age and bad blood." An ABA Indie Next selection.
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Kirkus 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."
🛒 Buy on AmazonA wide circle of readers connected by questions of identity, family, history, and justice.
Anyone who lived through the closed adoption era ✦ or is still searching for answers ✦ will find their story reflected here with deep compassion.
Lovers of powerful, exquisitely-crafted personal narrative. Literary nonfiction at its finest ✦ honest, unsentimental, and beautifully written.
Readers who understand reproductive rights as inseparable from human dignity ✦ grounded in history and deeply personal experience.
Those fascinated by America's hidden past ✦ the social shame, institutional coercion, and suppressed voices of the late 1960s.
Anyone grappling with family secrets, complicated relationships, or the profound question of what truly makes a family real.
A rich text for courses on women's studies, American history, memoir, social policy, and the politics of reproduction.
"A beautiful, powerful, and truth-telling story… I was struck by how it is both every birth mother's story and a story that is completely unique to the author."
"Transformed to majesty, not only by her exquisite word craft but by the depth of her compassion for the human condition, especially within families."
"Reminds us of how far women have come in their right to equality. Each woman faces her own traumas and personal battles as she searches for her voice to be heard."
"MacDonnell soon realized that the secret about her son contained a host of other secrets, evasions, and equivocations in her family and the culture at large. Her story reflects the stories of countless other girls and women."
"Hidden Girls is an important, beautifully-told accounting of that terrible history, and a timely warning that we not repeat its mistakes."
Julia MacDonnell grew up mostly outside Boston, the second oldest of eight in a Scotch-Irish Catholic family whose story spans the arc of the American immigrant experience ✦ from shipbuilding labor to the white-collar professional class, through the power of education.
Before she became a celebrated author, MacDonnell earned her keep as a fast food counter girl, a deliverer of hospital food trays, an assembly line worker in a rosary bead factory, a circus performer, a dancer in a traveling nightclub act across Latin America, a fitting model, and a waitress at high-end Manhattan restaurants. This richly lived life saturates every page she writes.
Her first artistic passion was dance ✦ studying the work of Alvin Ailey and Martha Graham ✦ before devoting herself to the written word in her twenties. Her journalism and literary writing have earned her a Pulitzer Traveling Fellowship, two Pushcart nominations, and multiple fellowships and residencies.
MacDonnell is professor emeritus in the Writing Arts department at Rowan University in Glassboro, N.J., where she developed the creative writing curriculum for the Master of Arts in Writing program. She is a frequent contributor and former nonfiction editor at Philadelphia Stories magazine.
MacDonnell is at work on another novel and a collection of personal essays. Her essays, Mother Knot and The Fires That Summer, are currently under submission.
Freelance Editing & Writing Instruction
Julia MacDonnell is available for freelance editing and writing-teaching services. With decades of experience developing award-winning writers at the graduate and undergraduate level, she brings the same depth of craft and compassion to private clients. Enquire here →
Drawing on four decades of literary experience, Julia offers editorial and instructional services for writers at every stage.
Developmental editing, line editing, and manuscript critique from an award-winning author and Professor Emeritus. Fiction, memoir, and creative nonfiction.
Private writing tutoring, workshop facilitation, and curriculum guidance for writers working on novels, memoirs, short stories, or MFA-level work.
Virtual or in-person visits to book clubs reading Hidden Girls, Mimi Malloy, or The Topography of Hidden Stories ✦ enriching discussions led by the author herself.
Keynotes, panel participation, and readings on adoption, reproductive history, feminist literary tradition, and the craft of writing memoir.
Detailed written assessments of full manuscripts or substantial excerpts, with actionable feedback on structure, voice, pacing, and publishability.
Curriculum development, MFA program advising, and expert consultation for writing programs ✦ drawing on her experience building Rowan's MA in Writing.
To enquire about any service, get in touch →
For speaking engagements, editing enquiries, press requests, book club visits, or general correspondence.
Professor Emeritus, Writing Arts
Rowan University, Glassboro, N.J.
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Last updated: 2024
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