University of New England

Presenting Monica Wood
A Talk and Reading

Thursday, April 3, 2008, 7-9 p.m., free and open to the public.

After a brief talk on the creative process and depositing her papers at MWWC, Monica Wood will read from her novel in progress.

“I was born in Mexico, Maine, to a family of devout Irish Catholics, a family of paper mill workers. My father and my mother's parents came from Prince Edward Island in Canada, and brought with them the island tradition of storytelling. Although my sisters and I were the first generation in the family to go to college, I think of my background as a literary one. My father had a lilting island brogue and beautiful grammar; the notion that stories had to be told in a certain way was something I learned early. My grandfather used to sing long, melodramatic, novelistic ballads, another island tradition. I am not one of those writers who claim to have been weaned on Proust, but I did read a lot, a happy habit for a child, I think, no matter what the material.

“My fiction is not autobiographical, except that the theme of family infuses my work, as it does my life. I strive to create characters who seem real, no matter how unusual their circumstances, and to make my readers care what happens to these characters as if they were looking after their own brothers and sisters. If I have any obsession as a writer, it is the notion of the power of our 'first' family, the family into which we were born: that collection of people who accompanied us, for better or worse, through the process of learning how to find our way into the world. Our first family remains with us, in ways both damaging and redeeming, through our entire lives. It is this family that must be alternately escaped from and returned to, over and over, in the family dance.”

PRAISE FOR ANY BITTER THING
"Gorgeously written and deeply moving...Wood's sensitive exploration of love, faith, and human frailty adds a rewarding dimension to a solid plot that keeps the pages turning." --Cleveland Plain Dealer

Monica Wood is the author of four works of fiction, most recently the ABA bestseller Any Bitter Thing. Her widely anthologized short stories have won a Pushcart Prize and been featured on public radio, including the NPR program Selected Shorts. She also writes books for writers and teachers, including The Pocket Muse: Ideas and Inspirations for Writing and The Pocket Muse Endless Inspiration: More Ideas for Writing. Her other fiction includes the novels Secret Language; My Only Story, a finalist for the Kate Chopin Award; and Ernie's Ark, selected by four Maine towns as a "One Book, One Community" selection. She maintains an active website at www.monicawood.com.

For more information, call Cally Gurley, Curator, MWWC, at 207/221-4324.