Stark, Elizabeth 1970-

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STARK, Elizabeth 1970-

PERSONAL:

Born 1970. Education: University of California at Santa Cruz, B.A. (women's studies), 1991; Columbia University, M.F.A. (writing), 1996.

ADDRESSES:

Agent—c/o Author Mail, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 19 Union Square West, New York, NY 10001.

CAREER:

Author and educator. Instructor at various colleges, including Laney College, Oakland, CA, and University of California at Santa Cruz; Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Geneva, NY, visiting assistant professor.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Lambda Literary Award finalist, Lambda Literary Foundation, and Ferro-Grumley Award finalist, Publishing Triangle in association with the Robert Chesley Foundation, both 1999, both for Shy Girl.

WRITINGS:

Shy Girl (novel), Farrar, Straus & Giroux (New York, NY), 1999.

SIDELIGHTS:

Elizabeth Stark was a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award and the Ferro-Grumley Award for her debut novel, Shy Girl. Thebook, set in San Francisco, tells a tale of lost love and the secrets that are often hidden by families. The central character, twenty-three-year-old Alta Corral, can never quite forget her first love—the girl she called "Shy." After abandoning Alta and moving to Seattle, Shy returns to the neighborhood of her childhood to be with her dying mother, unable to conceal that she has been living with a man and is pregnant.

Alta and Shy reunite briefly; however, Shy's confusion over her sexual identity and her reluctance to delve into the secrets of her dying mother's identity spells the end of Shy and Alta's relationship. A critic for Kirkus Reviews wrote, "The message is clear: keeping secrets or remaining silent about the past, or about one's sexuality, will lead only to trouble."

Reviewing the novel for Library Journal, Ina Rimpau commented, "This poorly edited effort by a first-time author should have incubated longer." However, Whitney Scott of Booklist called it a "stark, incisive first novel." Rachel Pepper commented in Curve that "Stark's saucy and evocative depictions of San Francisco and the girl scene there … form the basis of the book's best writing," and a critic for Publishers Weekly wrote, "[Stark's] refusal to let her characters mend the past tidily or sentimentally is impressive."