Novels:
The Quintland Sisters
March 5, 2019, William Morrow
Essays & Short Stories:
Living the Dream
(Winner of the 2024 Geist postcard contest, announced January 2025)
Five Books That Challenge Our Notions of Normal Time
August 12, 2024, Nerd Daily
In an Age of Medical Miracles, Gains Can Also Mean Loss
August 6, 2024, Women Writers, Women’s Books
Beat the Clock
February 29, 2024, Globe and Mail
Truth and Rhetoric
June 2023, Grain
The Crying Gene
August 2021, Pangyrus
Expectations
Summer 2020, Issue 107, Canadian Notes & Queries
Little Mysteries
Spring 2020, Issue 40, Qwerty
Hold On, Just So
January 2020, Issue 49.1, Phoebe
What We Talk About When We Talk About Dave’s Shirt
July 19, 2019, The Saturday Evening Post
A Small Malignancy
June 2019, A Prairie Journal
Dear Reader, 5 Recommended Epistolary Novels
March 28, 2019, LitHub
The Story of the Dionne Quintuplets is a Cautionary Tale for the Age of ‘Kidfluencers’
March 20, 2019, TIME.com
How They Move On
Spring/Summer 2018, Freefall Magazine
Marriage Backwaters (A Love Story)
March 2017, Causeway Lit
Quality of Life
Winter 2017, Issue 188, Antigonish Review
Mourners at the Grave of the Other Dr. Johansen
Summer 2016, WOW-Women on Writing
*BONUS: Interview with the author (me) here.
The Scrubber of Bodies
Summer 2016, Volume 4: Cobalt Review
Rags, Riches
June 2016: Bath Flash Fiction
*BONUS: Interview with the author (me) here.
Think of Sad
Spring 2016, Issue 4: F(r)iction
Swivelling my way to clarity through poetry and a Rubik’s Cube
June 2015: Globe and Mail
Lemons for Arthur
August 2015, Competition #7: Mash Stories
French Back-Seat Poetry
Spring 2015, Issue 38.1: Room Magazine
*BONUS: Hear it read aloud by the author (me) here.
Leave-taking
December 2014, Issue 32-33: Nashwaak Review
What Happened That Day
Fall 2014, Issue 22: carte blanche
How It Went Down
May 10, 2014, Fiction #51: The Danforth Review
Safe Spring 2014, Issue 130: The New Quarterly
What Comes Next
November 14, 2013: Pacifica Literary Review (online edition)
Let’s make 2013 a year of smaller breasts
January, 2013: Globe and Mail
Awards and Accolades
Geist Literal Literary Postcard Contest
December 2024, 1st Prize Winner
FreeFall Magazine Annual Prose Contest
Fall 2017, 1st Prize Winner, Short Fiction (“How They Move On“)
From Judge Bruce Hunter. “Psychologically compelling and skillfully written, “How They Move On,” told from a widower’s perspective, is an emotionally nuanced and intimate story about a doctor’s recovery from grief with an unexpected ending that hints at Chekhov. Wood’s compassion shines….”
“the Same” Literary Journal Short Fiction Contest
Fall 2017, First Place Winner, Fiction (“A Kind of Falling“)
Writer’s Union of Canada Emerging Writer’s Short Prose Contest
2017, Shortlist, Fiction (“How They Move On”)
From judges Eden Robinson, Amy Stuart, and Russell Wangersky: “A seamless story with not a single false note. Spare writing that gives readers years in two or three sentences; just the right detail at the precise moment it is needed. An excellent structure and natural narrative flow that builds a slow, inevitable recognition that we come to along with the narrator. This is a skilled writer giving readers a bittersweet story [with] not a smidge of sentimentality.”
Causeway Lit Creative Nonfiction Contest
Winter 2016/2016, Winner, Nonfiction (“Marriage Backwaters [A Love Story])
WOW, Women-on-Writing Flash Fiction Contest
Summer 2016, Runner Up, Flash Fiction (“Mourners at the Grave of the Other Dr. Johansen”)
Bath Flash Fiction Prize
June 2016, Second Place, Flash Fiction (“Rags, Riches”)
From judge Michelle Elvy: “[A] wonderful character sketch, with the beating sun setting the mood and scorching the reader’s heart. . . . We also glimpse something like hope, albeit heartbreaking. Youth embodied in golden bodies of teenagers: the promise of a life not lived, a life over there – just out of reach. Exceptional detail opening up a cavernous world of empty. And a fully imagined sequence creating a perfect close.”
Writer’s Union of Canada Developing Writer’s Short Prose Contest
2016, Shortlist, Fiction (“Truth and Rhetoric”)
From judges Gail Bowen, Shauntay Grant, and Eric Siblin: “Intellectually and emotionally engaging, as well as entertaining. . . . The writer is very skilled at weaving intimate emotional details. The prose is honest, very poetic. Sad, and beautiful.
Frank McCourt Creative Nonfiction Prize
2016, Winner, Nonfiction (“The Scrubber of Bodies”)
From judge Ben Tanzer: “ ‘The Scrubber of Bodies’ is an electric look at the body and connection, and how ones loses oneself to the fleeting nature of pleasure. It is also an exploration of marriage, however, and how such intimacies might lead to jealousy and confusion, or at least the idea that sometimes we seek pleasure in those things as well.”
Tethered by Letters F(r)iction Fall 2015 Contest
2016, Winner, Fiction (“Think of Sad”)
From reviewer Jade Blackwater (Brainripples): “Wood’s Think of Sad, a short story contest winner, paints a bittersweet portrait of people who connect through distances of space, time, and memory; how those distances grow and shrink in a blink.”
Toasted Cheese Literary Journal, A Midsummer Tale Contest
2015, Honorable Mention, Fiction (“The Drop”)
Mash Stories Competition #7
2015, Shortlist, Fiction (“Lemons for Arthur”)
The Malahat Review, Open Season Awards
2015, Finalist, Fiction* (“The Moment I Left You”)
carte blanche/Creative Nonfiction Collective Competition
2014, Honourable Mention (“What Happened That Day”)
Okanagan Short Story Contest
2014, Winner (“Leave-taking”)
From judge Gerry Shikatani: “Written in a seductively cadenced prose, it slips us in and out of their lives over the decades, in vivid vignette-like episodes that move us fluidly through the narrative. The diction is beautifully textured in a gentle drama that leaves us wondering how each character will move on.”
Room Magazine Annual Contest (Fiction)
2013, Shortlist (“The Drop”)
Okanagan Short Story Contest
2013, Shortlist (“What comes next”)
Okanagan Short Story Contest
2012, Third place (“The Drop”)
Okanagan Short Story Contest
2008, Shortlist (“Safe”)