Alice Elliott Dark

Alice Elliott Dark is a modern short story author and novelist. She is the author of two story collections, Naked to the Waist and In the Gloaming, and one novel Think of England.

Early life and education

She was born Alice Elliott Kirby in Philadelphia and grew up in Bryn Mawr where she attended the Shipley School. After that, she attended Kenyon College and the University of Pennsylvania, where she earned a BA in Chinese studies. She started out as a poet and earned an MFA from Antioch, producing a chapbook, This Is My Gun, Clyde, as her thesis.

Short stories and awards

The short story "In the Gloaming" was first published in The New Yorker in 1993 and was selected by John Updike for inclusion in the Best American Short Stories of the Century. Prior to that, it was included in The Best American Short Stories 1994, as selected by Tobias Wolff. In the Gloaming was made into an HBO film starring Glenn Close and directed by Christopher Reeve.

Dark's short story "Watch the Animals," first published in Harper's Magazine, was subsequently awarded an O. Henry Award in 2000. She has also published stories in Doubletake, Five Points, 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.