Sandy MacDonald

A Nantucket neighbor

About the author

Growing up in Riverdale near New York City, Sandy MacDonald was treated to a childhood of considerable enchantment, for which she was brattily ungrateful at the time. Her family (surgeon father, ex-concert violinist mother) spent winter vacations skiing in Vermont and several summers ensconced in an island lighthouse off Blue Hill, Maine. Her education veered between religious/repressive and progressive (the latter won out). Over the past four decades, she has contributed travel articles to dozens of magazines and numerous guidebooks. In the past two decades, she has branched into theatre criticism, a pursuit which prompted a return to New York. She and her husband, John Devaney, a painter, share an 1860s townhouse in Cambridge, (available for rent via sabbaticalhomes.com);a modest family compound on Nantucket; and a tiny Manhattan pied a terre that stares straight up the Empire State building. The strongest anchor to New York? Daughter Laurel Devaney, an actor based in Brooklyn, and her utterly delightful twin daughters, Eva and Zinnia.

Curriculum Vitae

EXPERIENCE

Writer specializing in theatre, travel, arts, books, design, 1984-present
Author: Quick Escapes Boston: 25 Weekend Getaways from the Hub (Globe Pequot, 2000; 2002)
Frommer's Cape Cod (Macmillan, 1997)
Cape Cod/Martha's Vineyard & Nantucket (Access/HarperCollins, 1994; 1996)
The Toys 'R Us Guide to Choosing the Right Toys for Your Child (Simon & Schuster, 1996)
Updates/chapters: various Access, Fodor’s, Frommer's, Insight, and Yankee guidebooks, 1993-present
Currently contributing to: Boston Globe, EdgeMediaNetwork.com, NewEnglandFilm.com, Ski, TheaterMania.com, TheaterNewsOnline.com
Previous credits: TheaterMania.com (New England correspondent, 2003-10); AOL-Digital City Boston (2001-03); BookPage (2000-06); FamilyFun (children’s books columnist, 1991-2000); Microsoft’s Sidewalk: Boston (1997-98); Improper Bostonian (1996-97); Design Times (1992-2002), Worth (1991-93); Parenting (1988-92); New England Monthly (contributing editor, 1984-90); book columnist, Child (1988-89); New Age (1984-88). Additional articles in ArtsMedia, BookPage, Boston Magazine, Boston Phoenix, Country Home, Frequent Flyer, Family Circle, Island Scene, Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism, Miami Herald, Ms. Foundation , New England Travel & Life,New York Times Book Review, Travel Agent, Travel & Leisure, Women’s Sports & Fitness, Yankee Travel Guide.

Editor, in-house and free-lance
1988-92: Manuscript Submissions Coordinator, Adult Trade Division, Houghton Mifflin
1986-88: Assistant to the Director of Trade & Reference, Houghton Mifflin
1977-84: Senior Editor, New Age
1972-77: Co-editor, Aphra: The Literary Feminist Quarterly
1970-72: Editor, Scripts; Associate Editor, Performance (publisher: Joseph Papp)
1969-70: Assistant Editor, TDR: The Drama Review

Translator from French, Spanish, and Italian
Books: My Husband by Dacia Maraini (partial); Machu Picchu and Mysteries of the Great Pyramid (Avon, 1978-79)
Plays, stories, articles, and interviews by Aragon, Arrabal, Barthes, Goldmann, Jodorowsky, Maraini, et al., published in TDR, Aphra, and Short Story International (1969-89)

EDUCATION

Bread Loaf Writers Conference, Harvard University Extension Program, Hagen-Berghof Studio, Barnard College, Universidad Internacional Menendez-Pelayo (Santander, Spain), La Sorbonne, Academia
Hispano-Americana (San Miguel de Allende, Mexico), The Putney School (VT)

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS

Authors Guild, Drama Desk (former nominator), National Book Critics Circle, New York Travel Writers Association

AWARDS

Benjamin Fine Journalism Award for Outstanding Education Reporting , 1995
National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Literary Translation, 1989

Avocation: In recent years my love of music (and fading stagefright) has opened up a new world

Sandy MacDonald
Soprano 1 (F3 – D6)
617-283-0081
smacd@aol.com

Resume on request

Sandy MacDonald

Curriculum Vitae

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