Discipline: Literature

Helen Norris

Discipline: Literature
Region: Montgomery, AL
MacDowell Fellowships: 1985, 1986, 1988
Helen Norris (1916-2013) was an American novelist and short story author who was Poet Laureate of Alabama from 1999 to 2003. She began writing as a child and graduated from University of Alabama in 1938. Her first novel, Something More Than Earth, was published in 1940. The book, though launched with a party attended by Margaret Mitchell, was not a commercial success. Norris stopped writing after the birth of her children but began again in the 1950s with one novel unpublished until the 1980s and another, For the Glory of God that was published in 1958. In 1966 she began teaching English at Huntington College in Montgomery, Alabama until her retirement in 1979. Following her retirement, Norris actively pursued her writing career with several published books. Her short stories have appeared in Southern Review, Sewanee Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, and The Gettysburg Review, among other literary journals. Her honors include O. Henry Awards, a Pushcart Prize, and the PEN Women's Biennial Award for best novel.