Header picture of Randall Norris, his book Women of Coal, and a picture of Highway 61 sign

Biography

"I'm the former Development Director Haley Heritage Square, a cultural complex in Knoxville, Tennessee designed to honor Alex Haley, the Pulitzer Prize winning author of Roots. My biography also reveals that I'm the founder of the Appalachian Writers Center, whose Executive Board of Directors includes Alex Haley, Yevgeny Yevteshenko, Isaac Bethshevis Singer, Jim Wayne Miller and Phillip O'Connor, Chair, Pulitzer Prize Nominating Committee. I'm also an award winning fiction writer, humanities presenter and author. Over the years, I've had great success as a grants writer. In 1997, Women of Coal, a study of 54 women in the central Appalachian coalfields, was published by the University Press of Kentucky. Some of my most challenging, interesting work has been as a Project Director for two major humanities projects, Highway 61 and Women of Coal. Highway 61 was shown at the State Capitol, viewed on Mississippi Public Television, toured 13 community colleges, and is now permanently displayed at the Delta Blues Museum in Clarksdale, Mississippi. Women of Coal toured the coalfields of southeastern Kentucky, western Virginia, southern West Virginia and east Tennessee. The exhibit is permanently displayed at the Cumberland Museum in Cumberland, Kentucky. My unfinished novel, The Ice House, deals with my family history, the genocide and assimilation of the eastern Cherokee. I am an official member of the Otter Band Cherokee in Harlan, Kentucky. In 1997, I received a B.S. in Secondary Education, Social Sciences, from Tennessee Technological University. In 1980, I received a Master of Fine Arts, Fiction, from Bowling Green State University. In 1998, I was awarded the Ph.D. in American Culture Studies, Communication, also at Bowling Green. My dissertation, God and Nature in Cumberland County: Disaster Narratives from east Tennessee, is currently under review at University of Tennessee press. My Vita includes a strong record of publications, fifteen years teaching experience, a positive teaching philosophy and strong letters of recommendation. In August, 2000, I began my work at Sauk Valley Community College in Dixon, Illinois, where I am a Professor of English and American Culture Studies."
- Randall Norris