Erin Donovan, TWH 2026 Directors Assistant (Fiction)

Erin Donovan is a goat farmer and failed academic who finally surrendered to the fact that fiction is more fun than footnotes. As a professor, her area of research and writing focused on middle schoolers, place-based learning, and how to get kids to write without groaning. In the midst of teaching, she wrote her own place-based stories beginning with The Odd Ones, a short story collection about misfits and The Calini, YA historical fiction series.

Now as a proper adult, Erin writes fiction, short stories, and the kind of weird little asides that help her make sense of the world, laugh at it a little, and feel connected to humanity, preferably by pen, rather than Zoom.

In her other life, Erin is the CEO of Conovar Solutions, founder of Fuel Training Consultants, and soon-to-be founder of Molly’s Moms, a nonprofit creating entrepreneurial education for single moms. But writing remains her first love and, if she’s honest, her favorite way to escape meetings.