Maureen McNeil

Originally from the Pacific Northwest, Maureen McNeil is a writer, artist and activist based in Brooklyn and the Hudson Valley. She has seven published books: Red Hook Poems (1985); two short story collections--Red Hook Stories (2008) and Wild Blueberries (2022); and three novels-- The Lost Diary of Marilyn Monroe, A Work of Fiction (2017), Anna Magdalena (2022) which is the first in a trilogy of novels, and its prequel, Tinker Street (2024). The thrid novel of The Anna Magdalena Trilogy is due out in 2026. McNeil has also co-authored a book of nonfiction, a memoir titled Mercy, A Brooklyn Story, with Mercedes Cabbagestalk, published by Emperor Books in 2024.

Maureen recieved an Honorable Mention in the 2024 Craft Short Fiction Prize for Breaking Waves. In 2021, she was a finalist for the Tiferet Fiction Prize for A Strange Breathless Stunt. Also in 2021, she won second place in The Barry Lopez Nonfiction Prize for Cooper and Corinna. McNeil has lectured, designed and taught writing workshops in partnership with arts and cultural organizations, such as Anne Frank Center USA, PEN America Prison Writing Program, Prison Public Memory Project, Yad Vashem, the Morgan Library, Skidmore College, and the Woodstock Day School, among others.