Julia MacDonnell Chang received her Masters in fiction in 1989. The Title of her thesis was Aurora. She is a now a novelist, short story writer, journalist, essayist and book reviewer. Her first novel, A Year of Favor, published by William Morrow & Co. in 1994, was called a “compelling debut” by Publisher’s Weekly. Kirkus Reviews said it was “powerful first fiction...A convincing evocation of life in a Central American country and a compelling portrait of a gutsy, post feminist heroine.”

She has had short stories published in numerous journals, including Briar Cliff Review, Paper Street, North Dakota Quarterly, and Happy. She has recently completed her first story collection, Going South and Other Sorrows. The poet Molly Peacock has said of MacDonnell’s work, “She writes with a psychological savvy and family wisdom few others have. Her words vibrate to the thought waves between sisters, mothers and daughters, parents and children, wives and husbands… MacDonnell’s stories tug at a single thread until a whole fabric unravels, and then they work the miracle of reweaving.”

A tenured associate professor, she teaches in both the undergraduate and graduate creative writing programs at Rowan University, specializing in fiction and creative nonfiction. She is currently completing her second novel, Mimi Molloy By Herself, and beginning work on a third.

Julia MacDonnell Chang is the recipient of two fiction fellowships from the N. J. State Council on the Arts, two Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation fellowships for residencies at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, a Pulitzer Traveling fellowship, and numerous other awards for her journalism and fiction.