Dale Peck born 13 July 1967Born on Long Island, New York, author Dale Peck was raised in Kansas and attended university in New Jersey. He currently teaches creative writing at The New School in New York.
The influential New York Times critic Michiko Kakutani has described Peck as 'a fiercely gifted modernist' and 'one of the most eloquent voices of his generation'. His critically acclaimed first novel Martin and John (published as Fucking Martin in the UK) (1993) was an ambitious, complex series of stories about a young gay writer named John and his lover Martin who dies of AIDS. Two further novels The Law of Enclosures (1996) and Now It's Time We Say Goodbye (1999) ensued, followed by What We Lost (2005) a 'creative' biography of his father's childhood.
Peck is well known in the US as a vitriolic literary critic, famous for a review of a novel which began: 'Rick Moody is the worst writer of his generation.' Because of this and other equally eviscerating reviews, Peck become the self-described 'most hated man in literature'.In 2004, he published Hatchet Jobs, a collection of his literary criticism. In a complete change of direction, his most recent books Drift House: The First Voyage (2005) and The Lost Cities: A Drift House Voyage (2007) have been imaginative books for children. His most recent novel was the gay teen coming of age novel Sprout (2009).
Dale Peck lives in Manhattan and is a regular columnist for Out.