Alice Elliott Dark is a writer of short stories, novels and essays. She is the author of the story collections ''
Naked to the Waist'' and ''In the Gloaming'' and the novels ''
Think of England'' and ''
Fellowship Point'', published by
Scribner/Marysue Rucci Books in July 2022.
Early life and education
She was born Alice Elliott Kirby in Philadelphia and grew up in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania,
where she attended the Shipley School. She attended Kenyon College and the University of Pennsylvania, where she earned a bachelor's degree in Chinese studies. She started out as a poet and earned a masters of fine arts from Antioch, producing the chapbook ''This Is My Gun, Clyde'' as her thesis.
Novels
Dark's novel ''
Fellowship Point'' (Scribner/Marysue Rucci Books) was published to critical acclaim on July 5, 2022. The novel is set primarily on Fellowship Point, a pristine coastal Maine peninsula. It tells the story of how a lifelong friendship between two women in their 80s, Agnes Lee and Polly Wister, is tested when Agnes suggests they dissolve the joint ownership of the point by the two of them and one other shareholder and donate it to a land trust to protect it from development.
''Think of England'', her first novel, was published by Simon & Schuster in 2002.
Short stories and awards
The short story "
In the Gloaming" was published in ''The New Yorker'' in 1993 and was selected by
John Updike for inclusion in the ''
Best American Short Stories The Best American Short Stories yearly anthology is a part of '' The Best American Series'' published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Since 1915, the BASS anthology has striven to contain the best short stories by some of the best-known writers in co ...
of the Century''. It also was included in ''
The Best American Short Stories 1994'', as selected by
Tobias Wolff
Tobias is the transliteration of the Greek which is a translation of the Hebrew biblical name he, טוֹבִיה, Toviyah, JahGod is good, label=none. With the biblical Book of Tobias being present in the Deuterocanon/Apocrypha of the Bible, T ...
. "In the Gloaming" was made into an HBO film starring
Glenn Close
Glenn Close (born March 19, 1947) is an American actress. Throughout her career spanning over four decades, Close has garnered numerous accolades, including two Screen Actors Guild Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, three Primetime Emmy Awards ...
and directed by
Christopher Reeve
Christopher D'Olier Reeve (September 25, 1952 – October 10, 2004) was an American actor, best known for playing the title character in the film '' Superman'' (1978) and three sequels.
Born in New York City and raised in Princeton, New Jersey ...
.
Dark's short story "Watch the Animals", published in ''
Harper's Magazine'', was awarded an
O. Henry Award
The O. Henry Award is an annual American award given to short stories of exceptional merit. The award is named after the American short-story writer O. Henry.
The ''PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories'' is an annual collection of the year's twenty best ...
in 2000. She has published stories in ''Doubletake'', ''Five Points'', ''Ploughshares'', ''A Public Space'', and ''Redbook''. Her essays and reviews have appeared in publications such as ''The New York Times'', ''The Washington Post'', and ''Harper's Bazaar'', and she is a frequent contributor of essays on a wide range of subjects to several anthologies.
Current life
Dark is the recipient of an NEA grant and has taught at the Writer's Voice in New York City, Bard College, Manhattanville College, Barnard College, and Rutgers University. She lives in New Jersey with her husband
Larry Dark, formerly the series editor for Prize Stories: The O. Henry Awards and currently director of The
Story Prize, an annual book award for short story collections. She also has a son Asher Dark.
She is an associate professor at Rutgers University-Newark.
References
External links
Web site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dark, Alice Elliott
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
Kenyon College alumni
University of Pennsylvania alumni
Postmodern writers
Writers from Philadelphia
American women short story writers
20th-century American short story writers
American women poets
Bard College faculty
Manhattanville College faculty
Barnard College faculty
Rutgers University faculty
20th-century American poets
20th-century American women writers
21st-century American short story writers
21st-century American women writers
21st-century American essayists
American women essayists
People from Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania
Antioch College alumni
20th-century American essayists
American women academics