Ellen Gilchrist

Ellen Louise Gilchrist (February 20, 1935 – January 30, 2024) was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet. She won a National Book Award for her 1984 collection of short stories, Victory Over Japan. She spent part of her childhood on a plantation owned by her maternal grandparents. She was survived by her sons Pierre Gautier Walker, Marshall Peteet Walker Jr., and Garth Gilchrist Walker, as well as 18 grandchildren, 10 great grandchildren, and her brother Robert Alford Gilchrist. Gilchrist also won awards for her poetry, although it was her short fiction for which she was most well-known. Gilchrist's stories are often praised for the characters that reappear regularly throughout her many volumes of short stories. Her final book is A Dangerous Age (Algonquin, 2008).