Marylee MacDonald (Fiction) | Phoenix, AZ
Booking Fee: |
Negotiable |
Will Travel: |
Anywhere |
Contact: |
http://maryleemacdonaldauthor.com/contact/ |
Website: |
http://maryleemacdonaldauthor.com |
Marylee MacDonald is a prize-winning author, writing mentor, and caregiving expert. Her novel, Montpelier Tomorrow, about caregiving and ALS, won a Gold Medal for Drama from the Readers’ Favorite International Book Awards, and is currently #1 on Listopia’s “Non-Chicklit Books for Women” and “Books You Need Tissues to Read.” Her short story collection, Bonds of Love & Blood, is currently a finalist in Foreword Review’s Indiefab Awards. The collection contains stories that have won the Barry Hannah Prize, the Jeanne M. Leiby Chapbook Award, the Ron Rash Award, the Matt Clark Prize, the ALR Fiction Prize, and others. Her short fiction has been published in American Literary Review, Bellevue Literary Review, Broad River Review, Folio, New Delta Review, North Atlantic Review, River Oak Review, Ruminate, StoryQuarterly, Yalobusha Review, and others. She specializes in fun writing workshops for late-life writers, for those who have a story they’re burning to tell, and for avid readers who harbor a secret desire to write a book. Her specific topics include 1) Lessons from literature: What Jane Austen, George Eliot, Marguerite Duras, and Edith Wharton taught me about the writing life ; 2) Using old photos as a springboard for stories; 3) Finding writing time in a crazy-busy world; 4) Transforming tragedy into hope: How writing restores optimism and hope; 5) The first ever painting of California and its painter, the 15-year-old Noel, survivor of the 1769 Transit of Venus expedition to Baja.
Books
Press & Reviews
“These elegantly crafted stories brim with emotional wisdom and eloquence.Bearing you around the world, they will imprint themselves, deeply, indelibly, upon your heart.”
—Melissa Pritchard, author of Palmerino
Each time I have read this fine novel, I have felt rewarded by the connection it offers to the central character. Colleen is that kind of character for which the large scale of the novel is made: her external and internal dilemmas have many dimensions; her relationships with other characters are shaped by complex past and present plot tensions; her viewpoint is transformative, that is, it presents the world as she alone perceives it. I can think of no single page in which her voice is not an irreplaceable gift to the reader.
—Kevin McIlvoy, author of The Fifth Station, Little Peg, and Hyssop
In her novel Montpelier Tomorrow, Marylee MacDonald illuminates a seemingly dark, hopeless story with light, humor, and compassion. In the aftermath of her son-in-law’s devastating diagnosis, Colleen Gallagher becomes increasingly driven to save her daughter and grandchildren even as she struggles to forge a life of her own. Montpelier Tomorrow is at once an engrossing account of the impossible choices faced by caregivers in the United States and a moving portrait of one close-knit, memorable family.
—Katherine Shonk, author of The Red Passport and Happy Now?
Montpelier Tomorrow is a touching read that highlights not only the challenges faced by those suffering from ALS, but the resounding strength of love that unites a family in the face of overwhelming grief. This is also an uplifting tale that underscores the resilience of the human spirit and the unbreakable strength of the family bond.
—Literary Fiction Book Review
