Erin Woo

Writing Her Way to College

by Fred Avett

Ask Erin Woo about her musical taste, and she readily admits it’s “not good.”

Ask the Chamblee senior about her favorite books, and she tells you she likes young adult novels, but quickly adds that she has read about 40 this year – more than one per week.

Ask her about writing, though, and Woo will talk.

“I like writing a lot,” she said earlier this year. “I went to the summer writing programs at Duke University, one here in Atlanta, and this year went to Governor’s Honors Program for communicative arts.”

While at GHP, which Woo likened to a mini-college, she and her cohorts focused on “eccentric aspects of writing, myths and a play by Tom Stoppard.”

These programs, appearances in the Et Cetera literary magazine, the year-long Writer’s Workshop class, and a novel she and two friends have been writing since middle school bode well for a senior with eyes on attending Stanford or Northwestern next year. “They both have excellent creative writing majors,” said Woo.

When not reading or writing or editing the Blue & Gold, Woo plays piano – “it’s cool because you can play more solos with piano since you can play the melodies and harmonies simultaneously” – and deals with two younger sisters and a cat named Mozart.