Ely, Scott 1944-

PERSONAL:

Born May 21, 1944, in Atlanta, GA; son of James Robertson (an engineer) and Dorothy Ely; married Carol Flournoy, March 21, 1967 (divorced, October 3, 1988); married Susan Ludvigson (a poet and teacher), October, 1988; children: Cynthia Leah, Laura Janet. Education: University of Mississippi, B.A., 1968, M.A., 1973; University of Arkansas, M.F.A., 1986. Politics: Democrat.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Rock Hill, SC. Office—Winthrop University, Rock Hill, SC 29733. Agent—Michael Carlisle, William Morris Agency, 1350 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10019. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Writer and educator. Snead Junior College, Boaz, AL, instructor, 1975-84; University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR, adjunct professor of English, 1986-87; Winthrop College, Rock Hill, SC, assistant professor of English, 1987-89, associate professor of English, 1989—. Also Appalachian State University, writer in residence, 1993. Military service: U.S. Army, 1969-70; served in Vietnam.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Rockefeller/Bellagio Fellowship, 1990; National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, 1992.

WRITINGS:

Starlight (novel), Weidenfeld & Nicolson (New York, NY), 1987.

Pit Bull (novel), Weidenfeld & Nicolson (New York, NY), 1988.

Overgrown with Love (stories), University of Arkansas Press (Fayetteville, AR), 1993.

The Angel of the Garden (stories), University of Missouri Press (Columbia, MO), 1999.

Pulpwood: Stories, Livingston Press (Livingston, AL), 2003.

Eating Mississippi (novel), Livingston Press at the University of West Alabama (Livingston, AL), 2005.

A Song for Alice Loom (novel), Livingston Press (Livingston, AL), 2006.

Contributor to anthologies, including Best American Short Stories, 1993; New Stories from the South, 1998; and After O'Connor: Stories from Contemporary Georgia, 2003. Contributor of stories to periodicals, including Antioch Review, Crazyhorse, Ohio Journal, Kansas Quarterly, Southern Review, Shenandoah, Gettysburg Review, Yemassee, and Panache.

SIDELIGHTS:

A short-story writer and novelist, Ely's first book was the novel Starlight. Drawing from his own experience in the Vietnam War, the author writes about a soldier whose comrades on various patrols always end up dead, leaving him repeatedly the only survivor. Eventually, he is made a sniper whose riflescope seems to be able to predict who will die. In a review from Magill Book Reviews presented on the eNotes.com Web site, a contributor noted that the "combat details are accurate and well drawn."

Scott wrote another novel, Pit Bull, and a short story collection, Overgrown with Love, before coming out with the collection of stories titled The Angel of the Garden in 1999. Referring to the collection as "plainspoken yet wry," a Publishers Weekly contributor went on in the same review to note "the collection's unrelenting, sustained honesty." Brian McCombie, writing in Booklist, commented: "Honest and straightforward, these stories represent a compelling addition to the literature of the Vietnam War."

Following another collection of short stories, Pulpwood: Stories, Ely's novel Eating Mississippi was published in 2005. The story revolves around a trip down the Mississippi by a group of men, including Robert Day, who is retracing the trip made by a runaway slave in the nineteenth century. The story of the men's journey is interspersed with the story of the slave, which Day recounts from a diary he found in his attic. "In this thought-provoking literary novel, Ely generates a good deal of suspense," wrote Joanne Wilkinson in Booklist.

A Song for Alice Loom portrays the complicated relationship over the years between the Looms, white property owners in Mississippi, and the Sabines, their black tenants. Alice Loom talks with her dead lover, Louis Sabine, who warns her about her racist brother. Alice, who has a child by Louis, is also warned by Louis that her brother intends to kill young Lame Sabine, who saw Alice's brother commit a murder. Wilkinson, once again writing in Booklist, commented that the author's "lurid plot seems to be the perfect vehicle for his larger theme of the ugliness of racial hatred."

Scott Ely told CA: "The year I spent in Vietnam is the single, most important event in my life. Growing up in Mississippi has also provided material for my writing."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, March 1, 1999, Brian McCombie, review of The Angel of the Garden, p. 1151; October 1, 2005, Joanne Wilkinson, review of Eating Mississippi, p. 34; September 15, 2006, Joanne Wilkinson, review of A Song for Alice Loom, p. 27.

New York Times Book Review, June 12, 1988, Paul Johnson, review of Pit Bull.

Publishers Weekly, February 8, 1999, review of The Angel of the Garden, p. 197; September 12, 2005, review of Eating Mississippi, p. 40.

ONLINE

eNotes.com,http://www.enotes.com/ (December 31, 2007), review of Pit Bull, from McGill Book Reviews.

University of Missouri Press Web site,http://press.umsystem.edu/ (January 28, 2008), overview of The Angel of the Garden.

Winthrop University Web site,http://www.winthrop.edu/ (March 8, 1999), "New Book by Winthrop's Scott Ely Offers Piercing Perceptions about Loss," article about The Angel of the Garden; (January 28, 2008), author's CV.