WCA hosts successful author’s luncheon

The Woman’s Club of Arlington hosted its 11th-annual Author Event Sunday, March 26, 2023. Proceeds will be donated to local charities, given as academic scholarships and gifted to Emmanuel Cancer Center (NJSFWC Special State Project).

The event featured Alice Elliott Dark. Dark is the author of the novels “Fellowship Point” and “Think of England,” and two collections of short stories, “In the Gloaming and Naked to the Waist.”

Her work has appeared in, among others, The New Yorker, Harper’s, DoubleTake, Ploughshares, A Public Space, Best American Short Stories, Prize Stories: The O.Henry Awards and has been translated into many languages.

“In the Gloaming,” a story, was chosen by John Updike for inclusion in The Best American Short Stories of the Century and was made into films by HBO and Trinity Playhouse. Her non-fiction reviews and essays have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post and many anthologies.

She is the recipient of a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and is an associate professor at Rutgers-Newark in the English department and the MFA program. Dark sold and signed copies of her books in conjunction with Watchung Booksellers.

Dark spoke about her writing history and the development of her novel, “Fellowship Point.” She says she was influenced by writers Charles Dickens, Mark Twain and James Michener among others. Dark wrote poetry until the age of 30. Following that, she became interested in writing novels.

“Fellowship Point” is about two 80-year-old women who have been friends since childhood (one is a writer and one a housewife and mother), and an ambitious 26-year-old who works for the writer’s publisher. The novel took 6 years to write. It required research into Quaker life, land trusts donated by women as well as other areas. The plot of the novel concerns what will to happen to Fellowship Point when the owners die and what their legacy will be.

Learn more about the writer ...

Kevin A. Canessa Jr. is the editor of and broadcaster at The Observer, a place where he has served on and off since 2006. He is responsible for the editorial content of the newspaper and website, the production of the e-Newspaper, writing several stories per week (including the weekly editorial), conducting live broadcasts on Facebook Live, including a weekly recap of the news — and much more behind the scenes. Between 2006 and 2008, he introduced the newspaper to its first-ever blog — which included podcasts, audio and video. Originally from Jersey City, Kevin lived in Kearny until 2004, lived in Port St. Lucie. Florida, for four years until February 2016 and in March of that year, he moved back to West Hudson to return to The Observer full time. Click Here to send Kevin an email.