Books by this Author

Spelling Mississippi (Vintage Canada, 2003)
Spelling Mississippi (Knopf Canada, 2002)

From an acclaimed short-story writer, a blazingly intelligent and humorous debut novel that is set in New Orleans and tells the story of two strangers whose paths first cross on the remarkable banks of the Mississippi.

Cleo, a Canadian on holiday in New Orleans, is sitting alone in the French Quarter late one night, dreamily watching the river's lazy progress. Suddenly, a woman clad in full evening dress, from rhinestone tiara to high heels, takes a running leap off the wharf into the Mississippi. Cleo watches, astonished, then turns and runs, mistakenly assuming the jumper is dead - a suicide.

But Madeline, it turns out, is not bent on suicide. She is irresistibly drawn to water, as is Cleo, who was conceived during the great flood in Florence in 1966. Perhaps it is this shared obsession with the murky depths that fuels Cleo's determination to find Madeline. She pounds the quaint streets of New Orleans, city of cheap bourbon, rich turtle soup, the scent of magnolias and A Streetcar Named Desire.

Spelling Mississippi is filled with all the bristling energy of Fall on Your Knees. Told with great humour and affection, it is a seductive, liberating story about ties that bind and those that simply restrain, and a lesson not in spelling but forgiveness.

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Literary Awards

Book Reviews and Quotes

Praise for Spelling Mississippi

"An affecting tale of one woman's immersion into the gloriously decadent city of New Orleans."
-National Post

"The hype around Marnie Woodrow's debut novel is justified… Spelling Mississippi is a spellbinding tale. New Orleans is where it happens - that sultry, blues-ridden city - and Marnie Woodrow is a writer who knows how to conjure up a setting… She's a terrific writer, and her wonderfully wry sense of humour enhances Cleo's journey… Spelling Mississippi is the book to read this season and Woodrow, with two story collections behind her as well as this fine novel, is the writer to watch."
-Vancouver Sun

"Spelling Mississippi begins with a visually stunning drama that lingers 'like the ghost scent of fine perfume' over all the pages to come… The narrative shifts smoothly between Cleo and Madeline, suspensefully unfurling their pasts, troubled childhoods, backstories ripe with longings and secrets, like the mini-cities of the dead, haunting the present… Woodrow is a delicious tease, offering cool quenching sips of information, but spiked with intrigue. The story swirls compellingly on, at times funny, wise, erotic, always precisely detailed and vivid. A kind of romantic melancholy permeates the pages… The charm and strength of the telling is the intimate reality created, the bang-on dialogue and characters [are] fully flesh and blood… Spelling Mississippi, in the best way, is alive, both spirited and haunted."
-Eliza Clark, The Globe and Mail

"Debut novel surfaces with extraordinary power… Marnie Woodrow, who in this debut novel already displays a brilliant feel for atmosphere and setting… invites you in to drink in all that atmosphere, and immerse yourself in her world. Spelling Mississippi is a novel that will absolutely surround you… [It] reads like a langorous swim to a private island."
-Hamilton Spectator

"Southern light shines on stunning debut… Woodrow has executed the shift to the long form with shocking grace and considerable skill… Spelling Mississippi is full of intelligence, humour and passion."
-Xtra!

"Spelling Mississippi is charged with the eccentric energies of its characters and its New Orleans setting. A love story that is tender, but also witty, sexy and highly intoxicating."
-Timothy Taylor, author of Stanley Park

"A smart, sexy, moving jazz riff of a novel."
-Emma Donoghue, author of Slammerkin

"In this bourbon-soaked barnburner of a tale, the Mississippi River becomes the catalyst for one woman's midnight swim and another's plunge into obsession. The setting is a New Orleans stocked with star-crossed lovers, barflies, thwarted dreams and mother-daughter showdowns. [Spelling Mississippi] plays with notions of fate and inevitability in the characters' lives, themes that fit nicely with New Orleans' reputation for romance and magic… The novel is, at its root, about people overcoming their tangled, traumatic histories to authentically find one another."
-Quill & Quire