Winner of the City of Toronto Book Award, China Blues explores the urban pastoral through poetry and fiction. Donnell's protagonist wanders Toronto, recalling his small-town Ontario boyhood and commenting on a range of contrasting subjects, from pop culture to war.

An eclectic collection of poetry and fiction, Dancing in the Dark tackles themes of music, culture, philosophy, love, literature, and beauty. In a series of pieces that are deeply personal though not autobiographical, Donnell evokes both high and low culture, in one moment recognizing the impossibility of desire, but acknowledging his work's connection to "The Boss," Bruce Springsteen, in another. He evokes music and the objects of everyday life with clarity and grace.