Mary MacDonald is a poet and writer and holds a PhD from the University of British Columbia. She has written poetry for ballet, public art, and libretto. Her fiction has appeared in Room magazine and nonfiction in Pique newsmagazine. Her chapbook, Going in Now, was published in 2014 by NIB Publishing. She is a member of the Whistler, BC writing group, The Vicious Circle, sits on the board of the Whistler Writers Festival, and serves as curator and moderator for the poetry division of the festival.

"“Moving deftly between sharply observed realism and a Leonora Carrington-like surrealism, the stories in The Crooked Thing are bathed in love—mother love, daughter love, sibling love, erotic love, self love—all the wild permutations of that joyful sorrowing that is the tender heart of life.” —Merilyn Simonds, author of The Convict Lover and Refuge

“Mary MacDonald is an elegant writer. Her stories about love, desire, fear and longing are suffused with light. Magical, lyrical and mysterious—I lost myself in this collection.” —Sarah Selecky, author of Radiant Shimmering Light

“MacDonald’s stories are spell-binding, complex, fresh explorations of love, loss, and discovery. She writes with the voice of a musician, the wisdom of a world traveller, the intensity of a poet, the clever hands of a magician and the tender heart of a dreamer. The Crooked Thing is a beautifully-crafted thing.” —Katherine Fawcett, author of The Little Washer of Sorrows and The Swan Suit

“Mary MacDonald’s collection of stories, The Crooked Thing, is a voyage through tragedy and desire, with the sharp edge of madness often lurking in between the lines. A lyric writer of sentences assembled from artfully constructed fragments, she transports the mysteries of daily life in an illogical world to the reality we all know, as The Crooked Thing illuminates the many magic moments that create the joy of living.” —Brian Brett, author of Trauma Farm and The Wind River Variations"