Kathleen Norris (poet)

Kathleen Norris (born July 27, 1947) is a poet and essayist.

For the novelist, see Kathleen Norris.

Biography

Kathleen Norris was born in Washington, D.C. on July 27, 1947. As a child, Norris moved to Hawaii with her parents, John Norris and Lois Totten, and in 1965 graduated from Punahou Preparatory School. Growing up, she spent most summers in her grandparent's town, Lemmon, South Dakota.[1]

After graduating from Bennington College in Vermont in 1969, Norris became arts administrator of the Academy of American Poets, and published her first book of poetry two years later.[2] In 1974 she inherited her grandparents' farm in Lemmon, South Dakota, moved there with her husband David Dwyer. In Lemmon, she joined Spencer Memorial Presbyterian church, and discovered the spirituality of the Great Plains.[3] In 1986, Norris entered a new, non-fiction phase in her literary career after becoming a Benedictine oblate at Assumption Abbey in Richardton, North Dakota, and spending extended periods at Saint John's Abbey in Collegeville, Minnesota.[4] At this period in her career, one of her focuses was death and depression.[5] After the death of her husband in 2003, Norris transferred her place of residence back to Hawaii, though she has lecture tours on the mainland.

Published books
Non-Fiction
  • Dakota: A Spiritual Geography. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston/New York City 1993, ISBN 0-395-71091-X (pbk.) (awarded "Notable Book" status by The New York Times)
  • The Cloister Walk (1996)
  • The Virgin of Bennington (2001)
  • Amazing Grace: A Vocabulary of Faith (1998)
  • Benedict and Scholastica
  • The Quotidian Mysteries: Laundry, Liturgy and "Women's Work" (1998)
  • Acedia and Me: A Marriage, Monks, And A Writer's Life (2008)
Poetry
  • Falling Off
  • The Middle of the World (1981)
  • The Year of Common Things
  • Little Girls in Church (1995)
  • Journey: New and Selected Poems, 1969-1999. University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 2001, ISBN 0-8229-4137-6.

Norris has also been a regular contributor to such magazines as Christian Century.

References
  1. 'About the Author, 'Dakota:A Spiritual Geography,' 1993.
  2. Kathleen Norris, Falling Off, Big Table Publishing Company, 1971.
  3. Kathleen Norris, Dakota: A Spiritual Geography, 1993.
  4. Kathleen Norris, The Cloister Walk, Riverhead Books, 1996.
  5. "Author Kathleen Norris talks about death, writing and the contemplative life". America Magazine. 2015-06-19. Retrieved 2019-05-01.


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