Janet McDonald (August 10, 1953 – April 11, 2007) was an American writer of young adult

novel A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itsel ...

s as well as the author of ''Project Girl'', a memoir about her early life in Brooklyn's

Farragut Houses The Farragut Houses is a public housing project located in the downtown neighborhood of northwestern Brooklyn, New York City, bordering the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Farragut Houses is a property of New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA). The houses ...

and struggle to achieve an Ivy League education. Her best known children's book is ''Spellbound'', which tells the story of a teenaged mother who wins a spelling competition and a college scholarship. The book was named as one of the

American Library Association The American Library Association (ALA) is a nonprofit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with 49,727 members a ...

's eighty-four

Best Book for Young Adults The American Library Association's Best Fiction for Young Adults, previously known as Best Books for Young Adults (1966–2010), is a recommendation list of books presented yearly by the YALSA division (Young Adult Library Services Association Th ...

in 2002. In addition to books, McDonald also wrote articles for publications such as ''

Slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...

'', including one in which she paid psychic

Sylvia Browne Sylvia Celeste Browne (''née'' Shoemaker; October 19, 1936 – November 20, 2013) was an American author who claimed to be a medium with psychic abilities. She appeared regularly on television and radio, including on ''The Montel William ...

$700 for a telephone reading. McDonald was a member of Mensa, the high IQ society.

Biography

After graduating from Vassar (1977),

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

Graduate School of Journalism (1984), and

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

Law School (1986), McDonald practiced law in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

(1986–89) and

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

(1989–91). She took a position as an intern at a

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

law firm (1991–93) before moving to

Olympia, Washington Olympia is the capital of the U.S. state of Washington and the county seat and largest city of Thurston County. It is southwest of the state's most populous city, Seattle, and is a cultural center of the southern Puget Sound region. European ...

, to work in the Attorney General's office and teach

French language French ( or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages. French evolved from Gallo-Romance, the Latin spoken in Gaul, and more specifically in Nor ...

classes at

Evergreen State College The Evergreen State College is a public liberal arts college in Olympia, Washington. Founded in 1967, it offers a non-traditional undergraduate curriculum in which students have the option to design their own study towards a degree or follow a p ...

. McDonald settled in

in 1995 to work first as an international attorney and then as a writer, until she died of cancer in 2007.

Bibliography

Books

* * * * * * * * *

Articles

* * * * * * * * * *

Quotes

* "Freedom is ... not about nothing left to lose, it's about nothing left to be; you don't have to be anything."Americans in Paris
a 2000 episode of ''

This American Life ''This American Life'' (''TAL'') is an American monthly hour-long radio program produced in collaboration with Chicago Public Media and hosted by Ira Glass. It is broadcast on numerous public radio stations in the United States and internation ...

'', featuring McDonald. * "Paris is where I became possible. It's where I became free."

References

External links

''Slate''
Various articles by McDonald, 1998–2003
"Americans in Paris"
''This American Life'', 2000 (extended radio interview with McDonald, beginning at 41.05)

Entrée to Black Paris, 2011 * Thomas E. Kennedy

The Literary Explorer, 2001 * Catherine Ross-Stroud
"A Talk with Janet McDonald"
The ALAN Review, Fall 2009 * Jennifer Williams
"Twists and Turns"
HipMama, 2003
C-Span Book Discussion
Janet McDonald discusses Project Girl, 1999 * Susie Linfield
"Caught in Life's Harsh Extremes"
''L.A. Times Book Review'', 1999 * Julia Browne

Spirit of Black Paris, 2007
Reading Eagle
"From Projects to Paris" Associated Press, 1999
The Birmingham Post (England)
"Letter from Paris", 1999
Memorial Page by Janet McDonald's Family
Forever Missed. * Sheryl McCarthy
"Talking With Janet McDonald / I Will Survive"
''Newsday'', 2000 * Lisa J. Curti

Go Brooklyn, 2004 * Thomas E. Kennedy
"You Don’t Remember Me, But I Remember You - For Janet McDonald"
''Serving House Journal'', 2011 {{DEFAULTSORT:Mcdonald, Janet 1953 births 2007 deaths American children's writers 20th-century American memoirists American women novelists 20th-century American novelists 21st-century American novelists American expatriates in France Mensans Vassar College alumni American women memoirists American women children's writers 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American women writers Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism alumni New York University School of Law alumni 21st-century American non-fiction writers African-American novelists Writers from Brooklyn 20th-century African-American women writers 20th-century African-American writers 21st-century African-American women 21st-century African-American people