DALE PECK
Peck is the author of fourteen books in a variety of genres. His short fiction, essays, and reviews have appeared in more than fifty publications including the New York Times, Harper’s, and the Baffler.
Peck is the Editor-in-Chief of the Evergreen Review and has been since its revival in 2017. He is a former contributing editor at Out magazine, where he served as the film critic from 2006 until 2008. He co-founded the writing collective Mischief + Mayhem and the children’s book packager WaterMark.
Peck is a member of PEN and the National Book Critics Circle, and a former member of the steering committee of Downtown for Democracy, which raised more than $1 million for progressive candidates in the 2004 election cycle. He is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, two O. Henry Awards, a Pushcart Prize, and the inaugural Lambda Literary Award for Young Adult fiction, and was named to the Out 100 list in 2010.
Born on Long Island, Peck spent most of childhood in Kansas. He was educated at Drew University, and now lives in New York City with his husband, Lou Peralta, and their two cats.
Peck’s latest essay, “Dogsbody,” is available at the Yale Review.
"My father named her after the Blizzard of 1966 that nearly blew his car off the road the day he brought her home. He wanted his children to grow up with a dog; whether he’d had his heart set on a malamute or if the breed just caught his eye around the time Dalene was born is anyone’s guess. 'Alaskan Storm' was her registered name, but we called her Stormy. She was almost two when I was born and died when I was thirteen, having outlived my mother and brother and outlasted my first two stepmothers and one more brother, not to mention six or seven homes abandoned across Long Island, upstate New York, Colorado, Kansas. Of the twenty or so dogs I grew up with, she was one of two my parents euthanized. Two others were hit by cars and Trapper and Marsha died of heartworm under the house. All the rest were shot."