Alice Adams (August 14, 1926 – May 27, 1999) was an American novelist, short story writer, academic and university professor.

She was born in Fredericksburg, Virginia, grew up in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and attended Radcliffe College, graduating in 1946. She married, and had a child, but her marriage broke up, and she spent several years as a single mother, working as a secretary. Her psychiatrist told her to give up writing and get remarried; instead she published her first novel, Careless Love (1966), and a few years later she published her first short story in The New Yorker. She wrote many novels but is best known for her short stories, in collections such as After You've Gone (1989) and The Last Lovely City (1999).

She received numerous awards, including the O. Henry Award and Best American Short Stories Award.

Adams died in San Francisco, California, in 1999.

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