Take Penny, N. By Madeline McDonnell Presented In Text

McDonnell is an extraordinary writer, Her balancing act, so to speak, in her second book, is remarkable, Her sharp humor is balanced with her compassion for her characters, Her innovative language and structural playfulness is balanced with concrete detail and a subtle sense of guiding through masterfully manipulated pointofview technique, It is exciting to see a writer take risks that are so ultimately successful, Can't wait to see what she thinks of next, Pretty. Beautiful and strange

and funny and uncomfortable and totally fucked up and God what gorgeous sentences! I just completed reading this little artifactand it does feel like one, in a number of ways.
Firstly, it was hard to locate a copy, Secondly, it is beautifully constructed, complete with pen drawings and a font from times past, or so it seems, But there is more: The narration is wonderfully unique with an airy yet dense quality, and the story itself features a lexicographer, dictionary definitions and a playful attention to words.
For a brief time, I was whisked away into Penny's world, a world whose components total a feeling of loss, of things almost forgotten and to be forgotten, of things that are passing through our fingers like sand, like people we care for, like our lives.
Penny, n. A definition:A onecent coin equal to one hundredth of a dollarA blueskirted, soontobe thirtyyearold, champagneswilling, highrisedwelling lounge singerA hopeful and lonely woman in loveThe object of a depressive and manic lexicographer's angst and affectionA trivial amountA slave or servantAn IttyBittyKittyKeeper, a Yuppypuppy, a Munchkin or MuffinBrideys maidofhonorA mothers pretty wonderA lovesick story of worth and worry.


Madeline McDonnell is the author of There Is Something Inside, It Wants To Get Out Rescue Press,, a collection of three stories, Other stories have recently appeared in Harvard , Kenyon Online, and CutBank, A former lexicographer for the Oxford English Dictionary and a graduate of the Iowa Writers Workshop, she teaches creative writing in New York City and Iowa City, Madeline McDonnell is a graduate of Brown University, where she was a Rose Writing Fellow, and The University of Iowa Writers Workshop, where she was an Iowa Arts Fellow.
She has taught writing at the Iowa Young Writers Studio, Cornish College of the Arts, and The University of Iowa she has also worked as an editor and lexicographer for the Oxford English Dictionary.
Her tiny story collection, There Is Something Inside, It Wants to Get Out, was published by Rescue Press this December, and she has work forthcoming in Harvard , Madeline McDonnell is a graduate of Brown University, where she was a Rose Writing Fellow, and The University of Iowa Writers Workshop, where she was an Iowa Arts Fellow.
She has taught writing at the Iowa Young Writers Studio, Cornish College of the Arts, and The University of Iowa she has also worked as an editor and lexicographer for the Oxford English Dictionary.
Her tiny story collection, "There Is Something Inside, It Wants to Get Out", was published by Rescue Press this December, and she has work forthcoming in Harvard , sitelink.