UA Little Rock Alumna Erin Wood Finds Her Calling in Writing, Editing, and Publishing

Erin Wood didn’t plan on becoming a publisher. But when a family loss pushed her to rethink everything, she followed a creative calling — one that led her back to Arkansas and into a career she shapes on her own terms.

Originally from Hot Springs, Wood lives in Little Rock where she has built a multifaceted career around words, stories, and helping other writers find their voices.

“I’m a creative nonfiction writer,” she said. “I am the author of Women Make Arkansas: Conversations with 50 Creatives (winner of Best Nonfiction South from the Independent Publisher Book Awards) and editor of, and a contributor to, Scars: An Anthology.”

Her recent work has appeared in The Sun, HuffPost Personal, The Rumpus, and on the Article Club podcast. Her essays have been named notable in The Best American Essays and nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

Wood is the owner and publisher of Et Alia Press, “a small press for big voices,” where she publishes nonfiction and children’s books by Arkansas authors. She also does freelance editing of essays, nonfiction manuscripts, and children’s books, and advises writers about the publishing process.

Wood earned an English degree from Duke University and a juris doctor from the Georgia State University College of Law. She was working as a lawyer when her father died, a moment that forced her to reevaluate what she truly wanted.

“I was practicing law in Atlanta, and my dad passed away at 58, so it sent me into some existential questioning,” she said. “I had always loved to write and edit, and I decided I wanted to move back to Arkansas.”

Once home, Wood began researching writing programs and discovered the professional and technical writing program at UA Little Rock.

“I found a program that I thought would give me both creative skills and practical skills,” she said.

Shortly after graduate school, she began piecing together a varied workload.

“I was cobbling together a bunch of different jobs. I had learned grant writing and editing, which I could do to pay the bills while I did more creative writing,” she said. “During grad school, I taught composition, and I continued to do that after I graduated. I was an adjunct professor. I was also a managing editor for an academic journal that is published by Johns Hopkins University Press called Literature and Medicine.”

She credits UA Little Rock faculty with opening doors. One of those mentors was Chuck Anderson, now retired, whose Writing and Healing class led her to work with the academic journal, where he was editor.

“I also worked with him as a grad student on Quills and Pixels, the literary magazine at UA Little Rock, which I edited,” she said. “And my thesis chair and former department head, George Jensen, asked if I would be interested in joining him in starting a small press. We started Et Alia in 2010, and I’ve been running it by myself for about eight years.”

Wood said much of her career growth has come from building relationships and showing up.

“I feel like I’ve just really stayed busy by word of mouth,” she said. “I’ve never really had to seek out work. I think the connections I made helped me put down roots in a new city and develop a new community around writing.”

For years after graduate school, she and several classmates continued to meet every few months to catch up — a reflection of how meaningful the experience had been.

Wood said she is grateful she chose to pursue her graduate studies at UA Little Rock.

“It reinforced the major career change that I had made, and I never looked back,” she said. “It grounded me in this new direction and made me realize I was doing exactly what I intended to do.”

One class that deeply influenced her was Writing for Adolescents and Families, taught by retired professor Toran Isom.

“It was pivotal for me,” Wood recalled. “She was such a positive mentor. I now edit and publish children’s books, and that class really helped me understand the serious types of children’s books I could take on. When I think about the books I want to publish for children, they are books about health or mental health issues that children deal with.”

Wood was recently selected as a 2025 Catalyze Fellow and awarded a $10,000 artist grant.

When asked for two words to describe UA Little Rock, Wood said “practical” and “formative.”

“Practical because I was able to get right to work after grad school using the skills I’d gained and the relationships I’d built. And formative because the insight, methods, and teaching and editing experience I gained prepared me to lead a career that is entrepreneurial and creative, and work alongside authors to bring their stories to the page.”

She has had an impact on the state’s literary landscape, and her contributions reach beyond the books she creates.

“Erin has built an incredible and vibrant independent press in Arkansas,” UA Little Rock professor Barb L’Eplattenier said. “She has produced a wide variety of gorgeous books that highlight the beauty, culture, and people of Arkansas. She is a fabulous mentor to authors and others involved in the Arkansas publishing industry.”

Wood’s advice to students is: connect and participate.

“Be sure to connect with your professors because they are experts in their field and you can learn so much from them beyond the classroom,” she said. “Take the opportunity to get involved in activities on campus that are related to your program. For me, that was Quills and Pixels, and it gave me a lot of practical experience in editing and writing. That’s what I needed to use in my everyday publishing career.”