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

Biography

Kathleen Norris was born in

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, on July 27, 1947. As a child, Norris moved to

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only state ...

with her parents, John Norris and Lois Totten, and in 1965 graduated from Punahou Preparatory School. Growing up, she spent most summers in her grandparents' town,

Lemmon, South Dakota Lemmon is a town in Perkins County, South Dakota, United States. The population was 1,160 at the 2020 census. Lemmon is named after George Ed Lemmon, a cattleman, who founded the town in 1906. The City of Lemmon received the South Dakota Commu ...

. After graduating from

Bennington College Bennington College is a private liberal arts college in Bennington, Vermont. Founded in 1932 as a women's college, it became co-educational in 1969. It claims to be the first college to include visual and performing arts as an equal partner in ...

Vermont Vermont () is a state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to ...

in 1969, Norris became arts administrator of the

Academy of American Poets The Academy of American Poets is a national, member-supported organization that promotes poets and the art of poetry. The nonprofit organization was incorporated in the state of New York in 1934. It fosters the readership of poetry through outreach ...

, and published her first book of poetry two years later. In 1974 she inherited her grandparents' farm in Lemmon, South Dakota, and moved there with her husband David Dwyer. In Lemmon, she joined Spencer Memorial

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...

church, and discovered the spirituality of the Great Plains. In 1986, Norris started writing non-fiction after becoming a

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oblate at Assumption Abbey in Richardton, North Dakota, and spending extended periods at Saint John's Abbey in

Collegeville, Minnesota Collegeville is an unincorporated community in St. Wendel Township, Stearns County, Minnesota, United States, near St. Joseph. The community is located near the junction of Collegeville Road and Old Collegeville Road. Nearby is Saint John's Abb ...

. At this period in her career, one of her focuses was death and depression. In 1998, Norris gave the Mandeleva Lecture at St. Mary's College in Indiana, a lecture which became the basis for ''The Quotidian Mysteries: Laundry, Liturgy and "Women’s Work".'' After the death of her husband in 2003, Norris transferred her place of residence back to

Published books

Non-Fiction

*''Dakota: A Spiritual Geography''. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston/New York City 1993, (pbk.) (awarded "Notable Book" status by ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'') *''The Cloister Walk'' (1996) *''Amazing Grace: A Vocabulary of Faith'' (1998) *''The Quotidian Mysteries: Laundry, Liturgy and "Women's Work"'' (1998) *''The Virgin of Bennington'' (2001) *''The Holy Twins: Benedict and Scholastica'' (2001) *''Acedia and Me: A Marriage, Monks, And A Writer's Life '' (2008)

Poetry

*''Falling Off'' (1971) *''The Middle of the World'' (1981) *''The Year of Common Things'' (1988) *''Little Girls in Church'' (1995) *''Journey: New and Selected Poems, 1969–1999''. University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 2001, . Norris has also been a regular contributor to such magazines as ''

Christian Century ''The Christian Century'' is a Christian magazine based in Chicago, Illinois. Considered the flagship magazine of US mainline Protestantism, the monthly reports on religious news; comments on theological, moral, and cultural issues; and revi ...

''.

References

External links

Interview with Kathleen Norris Part I
an
Part II Interview with Kathleen Norris
{{DEFAULTSORT:Norris, Kathleen 1947 births 20th-century Christian mystics Living people Bennington College alumni Punahou School alumni Roman Catholic mystics Christian writers Benedictine oblates American religious writers Women religious writers American spiritual writers Poets from Washington, D.C. Poets from Hawaii People from Lemmon, South Dakota Poets from South Dakota American women poets American women essayists 20th-century American poets 20th-century American women writers 20th-century American essayists 21st-century American women writers