Monica Wood, writer
To arrange a speaking engagement, please contact Authors Unbound at booked@authorsunbound.com or call at (541) 797-2217. If your request is very local, email me directly.
NEWS: My new play, Saint Dad, in now in rehearsals. I have a generous, talented cast and couldn't be happier. First preview is Oct 25, opening is Oct 27, closing show Nov 19. Tix at Portland Stage.
Also new is new edition of Any Bitter Thing, which includes an introduction by writer Cathie Pelletier. You can get it directly from Godine or anywhere else where books are sold! With many thanks to Josh Bodwell and the good folks at Godine.
The strike at HarperCollins is over, thank heaven. Because I didn't cross the picket line, my new novel, How to Read a Book, has been delayed. But it IS coming, sometime in 2024, probably May. You can read my reasons for holding up the works HERE. I'm grateful to be talking to my dear editor again. My team is so happy to be back at work!
FANS OF BETTY: Many of my readers ask about my sister Betty, who appeared in my memoir, When We Were the Kennedys. Betty died on June 20, 2018, in the embrace of her adoring sisters. She blessed our family for 67 years, and I am grateful. At her service we gave everyone in the packed church a symbolic stone, asked them to perform an act of kindness to honor Betty's life of kindness, and then keep the stone in a visible spot as a reminder of the long reach of seemingly small gestures. We also lost our brother, Barry, in December 2020--another blow for a close family. But we are still grateful for all we have and all we are to each other.
You can follow this (link) to a piece I wrote about Betty for Oprah Magazine. The original title was "Big Sister, Little Sister"; the magazine version (November 2011) title was "What Betty Knows"; and the online version on oprah.com shows up with yet another title. Also, here is a video of Betty's interview with her idol, anchorwoman Kim Block, (link), which aired after I published an essay on their friendship in Yankee Magazine.
VIDEOS: Here is a video I shot at my UK publisher: (link). And here's one from Bates College after they picked When We Were the Kennedys as their "common read": (link). Houghton Mifflin Harcourt produced this YouTube video of me discussing the memoir: (link), and my husband has a play list of other appearances on his YouTube channel (link).
CURRENTLY READING: Everything by Ellen Cooney, who is an undersung gift to fiction.
FOR PUBLIC EVENTS: To arrange a speaking engagement, please contact Authors Unbound at booked@authorsunbound.com, or (541) 797-2217. Go to Scheduled Events first to propose a date. I also book for reading groups if it doesn't involve too much travel. For local reading groups, e-mail me directly on this site.
Thanks for visiting the site, and come back soon! I don't blog, but you can find me on Facebook, and I do answer all my email.
