Ellen Gilchrist - 1935
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Houston High School in Houston, Mississippi
Ellen Gilchrist was born in Vicksburg, Mississippi, on February 20, 1935. She was the only girl in the family, having an older brother named Dooley. Gilchrist says, "My mother liked him best and my father liked him best and my maternal grandparents liked him best." Ellen Gilchrist spent most of her childhood being reared by her maternal grandparents on a plantation in Issaquena County, Mississippi.
I. Biography
Gilchrist attended Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. She has a BA degree in philosophy from Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi. Gilchrist also studied creative writing at Millsaps College and the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. It is a fact that Gilchrist, like her fictional character Rhonda, is a very competitive, strong-headed, and opinionated person.
II. Married Life and Children
Ellen Gilchrist eloped at the age of nineteen. After her first divorce, she went back to school. She has married and divorced three times; her first husband is the father of her three sons.
III. House
Gilchrist says she " loves her house and the many stories that it beholds!" She describes it as clean, quiet, and full of early autumn light. It is a place where a writer works.
IV. Literary Works
Long Fiction
She Annunciation (1983)
The Anna Papers (1988)
I Cannot Get You Close Enough (1990)
Net of Jewels (1992)
Star Carbon (1994)
Short Fiction
The Land Surveyor's Daughter (1979)
In the Land of Dreamy Dreams (1981)
Victory over Japan (1984)
Drunk with Love (1986)
The Age of Miracles (1995)
The Courts of Love: A Novella and Stories (1996)
Poetry
Riding Out the Tropical Depression: Selected Poems (1986)
V. Awards Received by Gilchrist
The National Endowment for the Arts Grant in Fiction (1979)
National Book Award for "Victory Over Japan" (1984)
Three-time winner of the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters-Literature Award
VI. Ellen Gilchrist on the Web
http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/english/ms-writers/dir/gilchrist_ellen/VII. Sources Masterplots Complete CD-ROM, 1999; Salem Press y'all. com-ellen gilchrist This essay was submitted by students of Beverly Doss, a teacher at Houston High School
in Houston, Mississippi.