Monica Wood (1953 - )

Genre: Non-Fiction, General Fiction

Monica Wood, born in Mexico, Maine, is a long-time Portland resident. A guidance counselor at Westbrook High School for eight years, she began her writing career as a short story writer in her late 20s. Her stories have been included in a number of anthologies, including Pushcart Prize Anthology 1999 and Best American Short Stories 1997. She includes a selective list of anthologies and magazines in which her stories appear on her web page. In addition to the listed anthologies, another short story, "Disappearing," is included in a text used by New York University medical school.

Wood's fiction includes novels Secret Language (1993/2002), My Only Story (2000), and Any Bitter Thing (2005). A collection of short stories called Ernie's Ark -- set in fictional Abbott Falls, Maine, about a man who decides to build an ark in his backyard -- was published in 2002.

In addition to writing fiction, Wood also presents workshops in which she teaches beginning writers how to improve their short stories and novels. Description (1995), a writer's guide, is an outgrowth of the workshops. She has published three anthologies/teachers' guides whose purpose is to promote the inclusion of contemporary fiction in the junior high and high school curriculum. Titles include Short Takes (1992), 12 Multicultural Novels (1997), and The Best of S. E. Hinton (1999). Wood's web page contains brief descriptions of her books. Wood also published The Pocket Muse: Ideas and Inspirations for Writing (2002) and a sequel, The Pocket Muse: Endless Inspiration (2006).


Last Update: 06/03/2007

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