Geoffrey Clark papers (Geoffrey Clark Papers)

Biographical note

Fiction writer, Geoffrey Clark (1940-2021), was raised Petoskey, Michigan, in the northern part of the lower peninsula. He received his BA and MA in English from Central Michigan University and MFA in Creative Writing and LIterature from the University of Iowa.

Much of Clark’s writing is about young people growing up in a rural community like the one he grew up in. His full-length works include Jackdog Summer, Wedding in October, and Two, Two Lily-White Boys. His shorter fiction has appeared in literary magazines, including Ploughshares, Mississippi Review, Witness, Flying Horse, Green Hills Literary Lantern, and Pittsburgh Quarterly.

Clark joined the Creative Writing department at Roger Williams College in 1973. In addition to his teaching responsibilities, he served as faculty advisor for Aldebaran - a student run literary magazine which began in 1971. He also edited The Best I Can Wish You: Stories from Five Women Writers (1985) and How the Weather Was: An Anthology of Stories by Rhode Island Writers (1990), both published by the College's Ampersand Press. Clark continued to write after his retirement in 1999. He resided in Warren, Rhode Island, until his passing in 2021.

Bibiography

• What the Moon Said: Short Stories (1983)
• Ruffian on the Stair: Short Stories
• Schooling the Spirit: Stories (1993)
• Jackdog Summer: A Novel (1996)
• All the Way Home: Stories and a Novella (1997
• Rabbit Fever: 12 Stories and a Memoir (2000)
• Wedding in October: A Novel (2002)
• Necessary Death: Stories (2006)
• Two, Two, Lily-White Boys: A Novel (2012)

Many of Clark's short stories were published multiple times, in different anthologies. It appears that some of the manuscripts (listed in the following inventory) were never published.