On this day in Alabama history: Author Helen Norris Bell was born
Portrait of Helen Norris Bell. (Photograph by Robertson Photography, with permission from the Alabama Writer’s Forum)
June 22, 1916
Helen Norris Bell was born on June 22, 1916 in Miami, Florida. Her family moved to her father’s home state of Alabama when she was just 8 months old, and Norris grew up on the family farm in east Montgomery County. She attended the University of Alabama and studied under Hudson Strode, the renowned professor of creative writing at UA. She became the first person in a Southern college or university whose work of creative writing (a novel) was accepted in lieu of a thesis for a Master of Arts degree. Norris became known for her distinctive and enchanting narrative voice through four novels, two books of poetry, four collections of stories and two one-act plays. The Alabama Writers Conclave elected her poet laureate in 1999 and she served until 2003.
Read more at Encyclopedia of Alabama.
“Water into Wine” by Helen Norris. (Amazon)
For more on Alabama’s Bicentennial, visit Alabama 200.
