Art Taylor

I am a fiction writer, book critic, and assistant professor of English at George Mason University.

My short stories have been published in several national magazines (Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine and North American Review, for example) and in various regional journals/newspapers — among them Cities and Roads, Lifeboat, The Lone Wolf Review, Wellspring, and the Raleigh (N.C.) News and Observer’s “Sunday Reader” section (the latter twice). 

Since 2001, I’ve been a contributing editor to Metro Magazine in Raleigh, N.C., writing a monthly literary column. Since 2005, I’ve been a semi-regular reviewer for the Washington Post Book World, with a focus on mysteries and thrillers. Other literary essays/reviews have appeared in publications including The Armchair Detective, Mississippi Quarterly, Mystery Scene, North Carolina Literary Review, Spectator, The Independent, and The Oxford American.

A native of Richlands, N.C., I’m a graduate of Yale University (B.A. American Studies) and also hold an M.A. in English/creative writing from N.C. State University and an M.F.A. in Fiction from George Mason University, where I now teach creative writing, composition, and literature, and help to coordinate marketing for the annual Fall for the Book Festival.

Before returning to academia, I worked as assistant director of communications for the North Carolina Museum of Art, and prior to that as managing editor of Spectator magazine, an alternative weekly in Raleigh, N.C. A member of the N.C. Writers’ Network since 1992, I chaired the Network’s Fall Conferences in 2000 and 2002 and have served as president of the Network’s Board of Trustees.

I’m also a member of Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, and the National Book Critics Circle.

You can contact me at etaylori@gmu.edu.