Background

Eric Darton was born on May 30, 1950, in New York City, New York, United States. He is a son of John Howard Darton and Beatrice Maria Kroll.

Darton spent his childhood and youth in Manhattan neighborhoods including Greenwich Village, the East Village and Chelsea.

Education

Eric Darton studied at Seward Park High School (currently divided in small five high schools) on the Lower East Side of New York City from 1964 to 1968. Later, Darton entered the Empire State College of the State University of New York. He graduated in 1990 with a Bachelor of Arts degree. Four years later he received his master of arts in Media Studies from Hunter College of the City University of New York.

Career

Eric Darton started his career as an editor of the Art and Performance topics at the East Village Eye magazine. From 1981 to 1983, he reported on community’s appearance on the world art scene. Darton himself was an active participant of the local cultural life. While at the magazine and throughout the 1990s, he also authored several satirical works for theater and performed in some of them, including ‘The Trouble With Harry (Helmsley)’ and ‘Medium Fool: A Play for 3 Actors, 2 Shills & an Audacious Audience’.

In 1985, he established a non-profit firm, Yomoma Arts, Inc. It organized a series of multi-genre cultural festivals in public parks of New York City called ‘For Hot Sundays! (¡Musica para domingos calientes!)’ and also issued a couple of literary series, ‘LitSal’ and ‘Reading the Bronx’. Another firm’s project, ‘LitDisc’ kiosk, travelled around the parks and public places of New York City demonstrating videos of poetry, fiction and storytelling performances in English, Spanish and Chinese.

The second year of the new decade, Darton became an associate editor at Conjunctions literary journal and started to teach the courses in media studies at Hunter College. He left the journal a year later. In 1996, he pursued his teaching activity in the School of Continuing and Professional Studies (currently the New York University School of Professional Studies) now holding a course on fiction writing. The post coincided with the publication of his first novel, acclaimed by critics, ‘Free City’.

Darton left Hunter College in 1997 and joined the staff of Fordham University where he spent two years lecturing on media studies. In 1998, he finished his career at the School of Continuing and Professional Studies, and opened an inter-genre writing workshop, ‘Writing at the Crossroads’ which functioned till 2006. A year after the appearance of the workshop, Eric Darton returned to editing occupying the post at American Letters & Commentary journal which he left in 2006.

The next book of Danton, a nonfiction ‘Divided We Stand: A Biography of New York’s World Trade Center’ was published in 2000. In August 2011, Darton took part in a series of lectures organized by the Mid-Manhattan library in memory of the tenth anniversary of September 1, 2001. His book was reissued with a new introduction and afterword.

In addition to his own publications, Darton’s fiction and nonfiction writings has been included in many anthologies, including ‘110 Stories: New York Writes After September 11’, and featured in various periodicals, both in print and online, such as ‘New England Review’, ‘Conjunctions’, ‘The Indypendent’, ‘Leonardo’ and others. The writer has also contributed himself to different anthologies.

Nowadays, Eric Darton is a senior editor of ‘Tupelo Quarterly’ in New York City. He also works as a teacher at Long Island University’s Global College, and the Harry Van Arsdale Center for Labor Studies at Empire State College. In New York University, he is a thesis-writing advisor to MA students in the Historical and Sustainable Architecture Studies program of the Department of Art History.

Achievements

• Eric Darton is an accomplished author whose writings on New York City life and short fiction stories are praised both by readers and critics.
  
  Darton has been a recipient of several fellowships, including the Franklin Furnance fellowship, the New York Foundation for the Arts fellowship and a grant from Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference.
  
  Darton’s book, ‘Divided We Stand: A Biography of New York’s World Trade Center’, became a bestseller in New York City. It was used in The History Channel's documentary World Trade Center, 1973-2001 (2001).

Works

More photos

• book

  • Free City

    (An inventor living at the beginning of the Enlightenment ...)

    1996
  • 110 Stories: New York Writes after September 11

    (The book gathers a multi-hued range of stories by New Yor...)

    2010
  • Divided We Stand: A Biography of the World Trade Center

    (Eric Darton chronicles the life of the World Trade Center...)

    1999
  • Beaky Chronicles

    (A fiction book gathering twelve stories about friendship ...)

    2008
  • Notes of a New York Son, 1995-2007. The Man at Table 4

    (The second of five volumes of Darton's cultural memoir ab...)

    2011
  • Notes of a New York Son, 1995-2007. Things Fall Together

    (The first of five volumes of Darton's cultural memoir abo...)

    2010
  • Notes of a New York Son, 1995-2007. Bush of Ghosts

    (The third of five volumes of Darton's cultural memoir abo...)

    2012
  • Notes of a New York Son, 1995-2007. Brave New York

    (The fouth of five volumes of Darton's cultural memoir abo...)

    2013
  • Notes of a New York Son, 1995-2007. Book of Manitou

    (The fifth and last volume of Darton's cultural memoir abo...)

    2013
  • Orogene

    (A novel of Utopia as seen through a painter's eye)

    2009

Membership

• PEN American Center , United States

Personality

Quotes from others about the person

• "Eric Darton is the walker in the city of his generation." Thomas Mermall, author, Hispanist and professor of Spanish literature

Connections

Eric Darton married Katie Kehrig on November 21, 1980. They have one daughter named Gwendolyn Helena.

Father:

John Howard Darton

Mother:

Beatrice Maria Kroll

Spouse:

Katie Kehrig

Daughter:

Gwendolyn Helena Kehrig-Darton