CHSS Senior of the Year

Grace Wood

BA Foreign Languages; BFA Creative Writing '26

Grace Wood is majoring in both creative writing (fiction) and foreign languages (Spanish) while also pursuing a minor in publishing. During her high school career, Wood self-published a young adult (YA) fantasy series, The Gemini Trilogy, through Amazon’s KindleDirect Publishing.

Her current project, and soon to be thesis, is a second YA fantasy series that, like J.R.R. Tolkien, utilizes the rich history and theology of her Catholic faith to create a search for God within the fantastical and medieval grounds of high fantasy. Additionally, she has spent three years as a writing center consultant and has worked with George Mason’s Stillhouse Press as part of her publishing minor. These experiences have allowed her to both sharpen her editing skills and better-understand the publishing sector.

As part of her coursework towards her Spanish BA, Wood studied abroad in Granada, Spain, where she presented her novellas to a contemporary literature class. Her experience in Spain inspired a two-part independent study and project with George Mason’s Undergraduate Research Scholars Program to create the first-ever complete English translation of María Zambrano’s play, The Tomb of Antigone. She expects to publish the translation with her mentor in 2026.

Currently, Wood is interning at the MITRE Corporation as a strategic engagement and communications intern and plans to attend an MFA program to further develop and publish her work.