Anthony Wood grew up in historic Natchez, Mississippi, fueling a life-long love of history. He lived and worked in Alaska for several years, but returned to the South to minister three decades among the poor, homeless, and incarcerated, inspiring him to co-author Up Close and Personal: Embracing the Poor, numerous ministry articles, and two short books, Your Seeking Soul Set Free, and Spirituality 101. He still preaches once a month for a small church in Mt. Ida, Arkansas.
Anthony’s writing has won a number of awards, including a Will Rogers Copper Medallion Award for his short story, “Not So Long in the Tooth,” published in Saddlebag Dispatches in 2021. A number of his works have been published in Saddlebag Dispatches, The Vault of Terror, The Avocet: A Journal of Nature Poetry, Writer’s Monthly, and three anthologies, Winning Writer’s Waltz, Tales of the Western Trail, and Between Hell and Tombstone.
Anthony has been selected to be the 2024 Arkansas Writers’ Hall of Fame inductee.
Anthony holds a Doctor of Ministry in Mentoring from Harding School of Theology and serves as President of White County Creative Writers. He is Managing Editor for the award winning Saddlebag Dispatches magazine and as serves as SVP and Deputy Publisher for Roan & Weatherford Publishing Associates as well as SVP and Assistant Publisher for two of the company’s imprints, Hat Creek and Otterford.
Storm of Terror, the sixth novel in Anthony’s ten book historical fiction series, A Tale of Two Colors, will be released in May 2024. The series follows Anthony’s ancestor, Lummy Tullos, as he navigates life during the troublesome Civil War era in search of peace.
Three prequels about his ancestors migrating from Scotland to the Mississippi Territory by way of Virginia will complete the series. He is in the throes of researching two nonfiction accounts of two Civil War regiments his ancestors served with, plotting three murder mystery novels involving his ministry in the inner city, writing more short stories, and daydreaming about writing a few western novels.
Anthony enjoys historical research and roaming historical sites, doing living history with Turner’s Battery reenactment group, nature photography, camping and kayaking, especially on the Mississippi River, and being with family. Anthony and his wife, Lisa, live in Conway, Arkansas. For Anthony, his two granddaughters, Norah and Scottie, and soon a new grandson, now rule the world.