The Invented Child (Gerald Cable Book Award)

Poetry. Winner of the Library of Virginia 2014 Poetry Award. "In THE INVENTED CHILD, Margaret Mackinnon can say of a tiny child's appearance in a fairy tale 'the air shimmers as this miracle unfurls' and be speaking also of the way her poems appear on the page. Whether in celebration or grief, she presents poem after poem alert to history and family poems that unfold with equal felicity to the heart's 'infinite and intricate discernments' and the lucidity of a mind alive to the world's stories." Gregory Orr

"Margaret Mackinnon is a compelling voice in American poetry. Her debut collection, THE INVENTED CHILD, is a beautifully poised between reticence and candor. Frequently inspired by visual art, she writes lovingly of her parents, her husband, her child, but also of Sophia Hawthorne and Walt Whitman and Grant Wood, reminding us of the 'sweet amplitude' of life. These are splendid poems of feeling that look far beyond the self to the miraculous other. Brava!" Kelly Cherry