Occupation Writer Role Novelist Name Ellen Gilchrist | Period 1979 – present Nationality American | |
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Born February 20, 1935 (age 89)
Vicksburg, Mississippi, US ( 1935-02-20 ) Genre Novel, short story, poetry Education Vanderbilt University, University of Arkansas, Millsaps College Awards National Book Award for Fiction Books Victory Over Japan: A, Acts of God, In the land of dreamy dreams, Net of jewels, A Dangerous Age | ||
Ellen Gilchrist Reading
Ellen Gilchrist (born February 20, 1935) is an American novelist, short story writer, and poet. She won a National Book Award for her 1984 collection of short stories, Victory Over Japan.
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Life
Gilchrist was born in Vicksburg, Mississippi, and spent part of her childhood on a plantation owned by her maternal grandparents. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in philosophy and studied creative writing under renowned writer Eudora Welty at Millsaps College. Later in life, Gilchrist enrolled in the creative writing program at the University of Arkansas, but she never completed her MFA. Gilchrist has been married and divorced four times (two marriages and divorces were with the same man) and has three children, fourteen grandchildren and two great grandchildren. She lives in Fayetteville, Arkansas, and Ocean Springs, Mississippi. She is currently a professor of creative writing and contemporary fiction at the University of Arkansas.
Criticism
A success for the recently founded University of Arkansas Press, In the Land of Dreamy Dreams (1981) sold more than 10,000 copies in its first ten months and won immense critical acclaim. Victory over Japan, a collection of short stories, won the U.S. National Book Award for Fiction in 1984. Gilchrist has also won awards for her poetry, although it is her short fiction for which she is most well-known. Gilchrist's stories are often praised for the characters that reappear regularly throughout her many volumes of short stories. Her latest book is A Dangerous Age (Algonquin, 2008).
Gilchrist was heard regularly as a commentator on National Public Radio’s Morning Edition from 1984-1985. Her NPR commentaries have been published in her book Falling Through Space.