Ellen Gilchrist, 1984 National Book Award winner for 'Victory Over Japan,' dies at 88
Author Ellen Gilchrist has died at age 88
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Ellen Gilchrist, a National Book Award winner whose short stories and novels drew on the complexities of people and places in the American South, has died. She was 88.
An obituary from her family said Gilchrist died Tuesday in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, where she had lived in her final years.
Gilchrist published more than two dozen books, including novels and volumes of poetry, short stories and essays. “Victory Over Japan,” a collection of short stories set in Mississippi and Arkansas, was awarded the National Book Award for fiction in 1984.
Gilchrist said during an interview at the Mississippi Book Festival in 2022 that when she started writing in the mid-1970s, reviewers would ridicule authors for drawing on their own life experiences.
