Howard Norman
Encyclopedia
Howard A. Norman is an American award-winning writer and educator. Most of his short stories
and novels are set in Canada's Maritime Provinces. He has written several translations of Algonquin, Cree
, Eskimo
, and Inuit
folklore
. His books have been translated into 12 languages.
. His parents were Russian-Polish-Jewish; they met in a Jewish orphanage. The family moved several times and Norman attended four different elementary schools, including in Grand Rapids, Michigan
. His father was absent much of the time; his mother babysat other children. He has three brothers.
After dropping out of high school, Norman moved to Toronto
. Working in Manitoba
on a fire crew with Cree
Indians, Norman became fascinated with their folkstories and culture. He spent the next sixteen years living and writing in Canada, including the Hudson Bay
area and the province of Newfoundland and Labrador
. During this time, he received his high school equivalency diploma, and studied later at Western Michigan University
Honors College where he received Bachelor of Arts degrees in zoology and English in 1972. In 1974, he earned a Master of Arts degree from the Folklore Institute of Indiana University
linguistics and folklore; his Masters thesis was entitled, Fatal Incidents of Unrequited Love in Folktales Around the World. For the next three years, he participated in the Michigan Society of Fellows; The Cree personal name was published in 1977.
Norman has been a prolific writer in a variety of styles. How Glooskap Outwits the Ice Giants, The owl-scatterer, and Between heaven and earth are written for juvenile audiences. His books on Canadian folklore include The wishing bone cycle (Cree), Who met the ice lynx (Cree), Who-Paddled-Backward-With-Trout (Cree), The girl who dreamed only geese (Inuit) Trickster and the fainting birds (Algonquin), and Northern tales (Eskimo). Northern Tales, translated into Italian and Japanese, was Norman's first book translated into foreign language. In Fond Remembrance of Me is not only an English translation of Noah and the Ark stories as told by a Manitoba
Inuit
elder, it is also a memoir of the friendship that Norman kindles with Helen Tanizaki, a writer who is translating these same stories into Japanese before her death.
Norman describes The Bird Artist, a novel, as his most conservative book structurally, though not psychologically. Time magazine named The Bird Artist one of its Best Five Books for 1994. It also was awarded the New England Booksellers Association Prize in Fiction, and Norman received a Lannan Literary Award
for this book. The Bird Artist and The Northern Lights were finalists for the National Book Award
. The Northern Lights was completed with assistance from the Whiting Writers' Award
. He received the Harold Morton Landon Translation Award from the Academy of American Poets
for The Wishing Bone Cycle. In On the trail of a ghost, an article published by National Geographic, Norman writes about Japan’s haiku
master, Matsuo Bashō
's 1200-mile walk in 1689, and the journey's epic log, entitled Oku no Hosomichi
. His book, My Famous Evening: Nova Scotia Sojourns, Diaries & Preoccupations was published under National Geographic's "Directions" travel series. It includes a chapter on the Nova Scotia poet Elizabeth Bishop
.
There are also several early books published in small numbers. These include: The Woe Shirt, Arrives Without Dogs, and Bay of Fundy Journal, amongst others.
Norman's 2010 novel What is Left the Daughter contains several American language uses that are inaccurate for his Canadian characters. For instance, "wallah" for "voila", "Canadian Thanksgiving" for "Thanksgiving" and "harbor" for "harbour".
Teacher
In 1999, Norman taught at Middlebury College
in Vermont.
Norman became Goucher College
's Writer in Residence in 2003. In 2006, he was appointed a Marsh professor at University of Vermont
. Norman now teaches creative writing
in the Masters of Fine Arts program at the University of Maryland, College Park
.
Professional affiliations
Norman has contributed to book review periodicals (The New York Times Book Review
; Los Angeles Times
Book Review; National Geographic Traveler
), participated on literary journals' editorial staff (Conjunctions
: Ploughshares
), and been a member of the board of directors for PEN
New York and PEN/Faulkner group, Washington, D.C.
Jane Shore
in 1981, and they married in 1984. They have a daughter, Emma.
Norman and Shore lived in Cambridge
, New Jersey, Oahu, and Vermont, before settling in to homes in Chevy Chase, Maryland
near Washington, D.C.
during the school year, and East Calais, Vermont
in the summertime. Their friend, the author David Mamet
and Shore's Goddard College
classmate, lives nearby.
During the summer of 2003, poet Reetika Vazirani
was housesitting the Norman's Chevy Chase home. There, on July 16, she killed her young son before committing suicide.
Some of his papers, for the period of 1975–1979, are stored at the University of Texas in the Special Collections Library.
Also in 1989, in the same issue of International Journal of American Linguistics, the American Indian language scholar Robert Brightman published an article titled "Tricksters and Ethnopoetics" in which he argued that the trickster cycle which appears in "The Wishing Bone Cycle" was originally recorded by the American linguist Leonard Bloomfield from the Cree story teller Maggie Achenam in 1925 and that Norman took Bloomfield's prose version and rewrote it in more poetic language.
Short story
A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...
and novels are set in Canada's Maritime Provinces. He has written several translations of Algonquin, Cree
Cree
The Cree are one of the largest groups of First Nations / Native Americans in North America, with 200,000 members living in Canada. In Canada, the major proportion of Cree live north and west of Lake Superior, in Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and the Northwest Territories, although...
, Eskimo
Eskimo
Eskimos or Inuit–Yupik peoples are indigenous peoples who have traditionally inhabited the circumpolar region from eastern Siberia , across Alaska , Canada, and Greenland....
, and Inuit
Inuit
The Inuit are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic regions of Canada , Denmark , Russia and the United States . Inuit means “the people” in the Inuktitut language...
folklore
Folklore
Folklore consists of legends, music, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, fairy tales and customs that are the traditions of a culture, subculture, or group. It is also the set of practices through which those expressive genres are shared. The study of folklore is sometimes called...
. His books have been translated into 12 languages.
Early years
Norman was born in Toledo, OhioToledo, Ohio
Toledo is the fourth most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Lucas County. Toledo is in northwest Ohio, on the western end of Lake Erie, and borders the State of Michigan...
. His parents were Russian-Polish-Jewish; they met in a Jewish orphanage. The family moved several times and Norman attended four different elementary schools, including in Grand Rapids, Michigan
Grand Rapids, Michigan
Grand Rapids is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. The city is located on the Grand River about 40 miles east of Lake Michigan. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 188,040. In 2010, the Grand Rapids metropolitan area had a population of 774,160 and a combined statistical area, Grand...
. His father was absent much of the time; his mother babysat other children. He has three brothers.
After dropping out of high school, Norman moved to Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
. Working in Manitoba
Manitoba
Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...
on a fire crew with Cree
Cree
The Cree are one of the largest groups of First Nations / Native Americans in North America, with 200,000 members living in Canada. In Canada, the major proportion of Cree live north and west of Lake Superior, in Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and the Northwest Territories, although...
Indians, Norman became fascinated with their folkstories and culture. He spent the next sixteen years living and writing in Canada, including the Hudson Bay
Hudson Bay
Hudson Bay , sometimes called Hudson's Bay, is a large body of saltwater in northeastern Canada. It drains a very large area, about , that includes parts of Ontario, Quebec, Saskatchewan, Alberta, most of Manitoba, southeastern Nunavut, as well as parts of North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota,...
area and the province of Newfoundland and Labrador
Newfoundland and Labrador
Newfoundland and Labrador is the easternmost province of Canada. Situated in the country's Atlantic region, it incorporates the island of Newfoundland and mainland Labrador with a combined area of . As of April 2011, the province's estimated population is 508,400...
. During this time, he received his high school equivalency diploma, and studied later at Western Michigan University
Western Michigan University
Western Michigan University is a public university located in Kalamazoo, Michigan, United States. The university was established in 1903 by Dwight B. Waldo, and as of the Fall 2010 semester, its enrollment is 25,045....
Honors College where he received Bachelor of Arts degrees in zoology and English in 1972. In 1974, he earned a Master of Arts degree from the Folklore Institute of Indiana University
Indiana University
Indiana University is a multi-campus public university system in the state of Indiana, United States. Indiana University has a combined student body of more than 100,000 students, including approximately 42,000 students enrolled at the Indiana University Bloomington campus and approximately 37,000...
linguistics and folklore; his Masters thesis was entitled, Fatal Incidents of Unrequited Love in Folktales Around the World. For the next three years, he participated in the Michigan Society of Fellows; The Cree personal name was published in 1977.
Career
WriterNorman has been a prolific writer in a variety of styles. How Glooskap Outwits the Ice Giants, The owl-scatterer, and Between heaven and earth are written for juvenile audiences. His books on Canadian folklore include The wishing bone cycle (Cree), Who met the ice lynx (Cree), Who-Paddled-Backward-With-Trout (Cree), The girl who dreamed only geese (Inuit) Trickster and the fainting birds (Algonquin), and Northern tales (Eskimo). Northern Tales, translated into Italian and Japanese, was Norman's first book translated into foreign language. In Fond Remembrance of Me is not only an English translation of Noah and the Ark stories as told by a Manitoba
Manitoba
Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...
Inuit
Inuit
The Inuit are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic regions of Canada , Denmark , Russia and the United States . Inuit means “the people” in the Inuktitut language...
elder, it is also a memoir of the friendship that Norman kindles with Helen Tanizaki, a writer who is translating these same stories into Japanese before her death.
Norman describes The Bird Artist, a novel, as his most conservative book structurally, though not psychologically. Time magazine named The Bird Artist one of its Best Five Books for 1994. It also was awarded the New England Booksellers Association Prize in Fiction, and Norman received a Lannan Literary Award
Lannan Literary Awards
The Lannan Literary Awards are a series of awards and literary fellowships given out in various fields by the Lannan Foundation. Established in 1989, the awards are meant "to honor both established and emerging writers whose work is of exceptional quality", according to the foundation...
for this book. The Bird Artist and The Northern Lights were finalists for the National Book Award
National Book Award
The National Book Awards are a set of American literary awards. Started in 1950, the Awards are presented annually to American authors for literature published in the current year. In 1989 the National Book Foundation, a nonprofit organization which now oversees and manages the National Book...
. The Northern Lights was completed with assistance from the Whiting Writers' Award
Whiting Writers' Award
The Whiting Writers' Award is an American award presented annually to ten emerging writers in fiction, nonfiction, poetry and plays. The award is sponsored by the Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation and has been presented since 1985. As of 2007, winners receive US $50,000.-External links:**...
. He received the Harold Morton Landon Translation Award from the Academy of American Poets
Academy of American Poets
The Academy of American Poets is a non-profit organization dedicated to the art of poetry. The Academy was incorporated as a "membership corporation" in New York State in 1934...
for The Wishing Bone Cycle. In On the trail of a ghost, an article published by National Geographic, Norman writes about Japan’s haiku
Haiku
' , plural haiku, is a very short form of Japanese poetry typically characterised by three qualities:* The essence of haiku is "cutting"...
master, Matsuo Bashō
Matsuo Basho
, born , then , was the most famous poet of the Edo period in Japan. During his lifetime, Bashō was recognized for his works in the collaborative haikai no renga form; today, after centuries of commentary, he is recognized as a master of brief and clear haiku...
's 1200-mile walk in 1689, and the journey's epic log, entitled Oku no Hosomichi
Oku no Hosomichi
, translated alternately as The Narrow Road to the Deep North and The Narrow Road to the Interior, is a major work by the Japanese poet Matsuo Bashō considered "one of the major texts of classical Japanese literature."...
. His book, My Famous Evening: Nova Scotia Sojourns, Diaries & Preoccupations was published under National Geographic's "Directions" travel series. It includes a chapter on the Nova Scotia poet Elizabeth Bishop
Elizabeth Bishop
Elizabeth Bishop was an American poet and short-story writer. She was the Poet Laureate of the United States from 1949 to 1950, a Pulitzer Prize winner in 1956 and a National Book Award Winner for Poetry in 1970. Elizabeth Bishop House is an artists' retreat in Great Village, Nova Scotia...
.
There are also several early books published in small numbers. These include: The Woe Shirt, Arrives Without Dogs, and Bay of Fundy Journal, amongst others.
Norman's 2010 novel What is Left the Daughter contains several American language uses that are inaccurate for his Canadian characters. For instance, "wallah" for "voila", "Canadian Thanksgiving" for "Thanksgiving" and "harbor" for "harbour".
Teacher
In 1999, Norman taught at Middlebury College
Middlebury College
Middlebury College is a private liberal arts college located in Middlebury, Vermont, USA. Founded in 1800, it is one of the oldest liberal arts colleges in the United States. Drawing 2,400 undergraduates from all 50 United States and over 70 countries, Middlebury offers 44 majors in the arts,...
in Vermont.
Norman became Goucher College
Goucher College
Goucher College is a private, co-educational, liberal arts college located in the northern Baltimore suburb of Towson in unincorporated Baltimore County, Maryland, on a 287 acre campus. The school has approximately 1,475 undergraduate students studying in 31 majors and six interdisciplinary...
's Writer in Residence in 2003. In 2006, he was appointed a Marsh professor at University of Vermont
University of Vermont
The University of Vermont comprises seven undergraduate schools, an honors college, a graduate college, and a college of medicine. The Honors College does not offer its own degrees; students in the Honors College concurrently enroll in one of the university's seven undergraduate colleges or...
. Norman now teaches creative writing
Creative writing
Creative writing is considered to be any writing, fiction, poetry, or non-fiction, that goes outside the bounds of normal professional, journalistic, academic, and technical forms of literature. Works which fall into this category include novels, epics, short stories, and poems...
in the Masters of Fine Arts program at the University of Maryland, College Park
University of Maryland, College Park
The University of Maryland, College Park is a top-ranked public research university located in the city of College Park in Prince George's County, Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C...
.
Professional affiliations
Norman has contributed to book review periodicals (The New York Times Book Review
The New York Times Book Review
The New York Times Book Review is a weekly paper-magazine supplement to The New York Times in which current non-fiction and fiction books are reviewed. It is one of the most influential and widely read book review publications in the industry. The offices are located near Times Square in New York...
; Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
Book Review; National Geographic Traveler
National Geographic Traveler
National Geographic Traveler is a magazine published by the National Geographic Society in the United States. It was launched in 1984. Local-language editions of National Geographic Traveler are published in Armenia, Belgium/the Netherlands, China, Croatia, Czech Republic, Indonesia, Latin America,...
), participated on literary journals' editorial staff (Conjunctions
Conjunctions
Conjunctions, is a biannual American literary journal based at Bard College. It was founded in 1981 and is currently edited by Bradford Morrow....
: Ploughshares
Ploughshares
Ploughshares is an American literary magazine founded in 1971 by DeWitt Henry and Peter O'Malley in The Plough and Stars, an Irish pub in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Since 1989, Ploughshares has been based at Emerson College in the heart of Boston...
), and been a member of the board of directors for PEN
PEN American Center
PEN American Center , founded in 1922 and based in New York City, works to advance literature, to defend free expression, and to foster international literary fellowship. The Center has a membership of 3,300 writers, editors, and translators...
New York and PEN/Faulkner group, Washington, D.C.
Personal life
Norman met poetPoet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
Jane Shore
Jane Shore (poet)
-Life:She graduated from Goddard College, and moved from Vermont to the Iowa Writers' Workshop. She graduated from Radcliffe College in 1972, where she was a student of Elizabeth Bishop....
in 1981, and they married in 1984. They have a daughter, Emma.
Norman and Shore lived in Cambridge
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...
, New Jersey, Oahu, and Vermont, before settling in to homes in Chevy Chase, Maryland
Chevy Chase, Maryland
Chevy Chase is the name of both a town and an unincorporated census-designated place in Montgomery County, Maryland. In addition, a number of villages in the same area of Montgomery County include "Chevy Chase" in their names...
near Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
during the school year, and East Calais, Vermont
Calais, Vermont
Calais is a town in Washington County, Vermont, United States. The population was 1,529 at the 2000 census. Calais is pronounced similarly to palace, not chalet...
in the summertime. Their friend, the author David Mamet
David Mamet
David Alan Mamet is an American playwright, essayist, screenwriter and film director.Best known as a playwright, Mamet won a Pulitzer Prize and received a Tony nomination for Glengarry Glen Ross . He also received a Tony nomination for Speed-the-Plow . As a screenwriter, he received Oscar...
and Shore's Goddard College
Goddard College
Goddard College is a private, liberal arts college located in Plainfield, Vermont, offering undergraduate and graduate degree programs. Goddard College currently operates on an intensive low-residency model...
classmate, lives nearby.
During the summer of 2003, poet Reetika Vazirani
Reetika Vazirani
Reetika Vazirani was an American poet and educator. On July 16, 2003, Vazirani was housesitting in the Chevy Chase, Maryland home of novelist Howard Norman and his wife, the poet, Jane Shore. There, Vazirani took the life of her two-year-old son, Jehan, and then her own.-Life:She was born in...
was housesitting the Norman's Chevy Chase home. There, on July 16, she killed her young son before committing suicide.
Some of his papers, for the period of 1975–1979, are stored at the University of Texas in the Special Collections Library.
Awards
- Guggenheim Fellowship
- National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships (x3)
- National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship
- 2001, Distinguished Alumni Award, Western Michigan University
- 1996, Lannan Literary Award for Fiction
- 1986, Whiting Writers' Award
- 1978, Harold Morton Landon Translation Award
Partial list of works
- (1976). The wishing bone cycle: Narrative poems from the Swampy Cree Indians. ISBN 0883730456
- (1978). Who met the ice lynx: Naming stories of the Swampy Cree people. ISBN 091691402X
- (1986). The owl-scatterer. ISBN 0871130580
- (1987). Who-Paddled-Backward-With-Trout. ISBN 0316611824
- (1987). The northern lights: A novel. ISBN 0671532316
- (1989). How Glooskap Outwits the Ice Giants; and other tales of the Maritime Indians. ISBN 0316611816
- (1989). Kiss in the Hotel Joseph Conrad and other stories. ISBN 067164419X
- (1990). Northern tales: Traditional stories of Eskimo and Indian peoples. ISBN 0394540603
- (1994). The bird artist. Farrar, Straus and GirouxFarrar, Straus and GirouxFarrar, Straus and Giroux is an American book publishing company, founded in 1946 by Roger W. Straus, Jr. and John C. Farrar. Known primarily as Farrar, Straus in its first decade of existence, the company was renamed several times, including Farrar, Straus and Young and Farrar, Straus and Cudahy...
, ISBN 0374113300 - (1997). The girl who dreamed only geese, and other tales of the Far North. ISBN 0152309799
- (1998). The Museum Guard. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, ISBN 0-374-21649-5
- (1999). Trickster and the fainting birds. ISBN 0152008888
- (2002). The haunting of L. Farrar, Straus ISBN 0374168253
- (2004). Between heaven and earth: Bird tales from around the world. ISBN 0152019820
- (2004). My famous evening: Nova Scotia sojourns, diaries & preoccupations. ISBN 0792266307
- (2005). In fond remembrance of me. ISBN 0865476802
- (2007). Devotion. ISBN 9780618735419
- (2008). "On the trail of a ghost". National Geographic. 213 (2), 137–149. Washington, DC: National Geographic Society. OCLC 227005140
- (2010) What Is Left the Daughter ISBN 0618735433
Scholarly criticism of Norman's Cree transcriptions
In 1989 the American Indian language scholar John D. Nichols published an article in International Journal of American Linguistics titled "The Wishing Bone Cycle": a Cree "Ossian"? In this article he argued that Norman's supposed Cree transcriptions were faked and consisted of words copied out of a dictionary and used improperly.Also in 1989, in the same issue of International Journal of American Linguistics, the American Indian language scholar Robert Brightman published an article titled "Tricksters and Ethnopoetics" in which he argued that the trickster cycle which appears in "The Wishing Bone Cycle" was originally recorded by the American linguist Leonard Bloomfield from the Cree story teller Maggie Achenam in 1925 and that Norman took Bloomfield's prose version and rewrote it in more poetic language.