Whiting Awards
1 appearances
-
Edition 1 (1985) Winner
Howard Alan Norman
ハワード・エー・ノーマン
Howard A. Norman
Profile
- Gender
- Male
- Born
- 1949-01-01 （Toledo, Ohio, U.S.）
- Nationality
- United States
- Languages
- English
- Residence History
- Toronto, Canada → Manitoba, Canada (worked/ lived) → Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S. → New Jersey, U.S. → Oahu, Hawaii, U.S. → Chevy Chase, Maryland, U.S. → East Calais, Vermont, U.S. (summer)
Career
- Occupations
- Writer, Educator, Professor
- Active Years
- 1976-
- Affiliations
- Middlebury College (visiting faculty), Goucher College (Writer in Residence), University of Vermont (Marsh Professor), University of Maryland, College Park (MFA creative writing faculty), PEN American Center (former board member), PEN/Faulkner (former board member)
- Memberships
- PEN American Center, PEN/Faulkner
- Influenced By
- Cree folklore and oral traditions, Inuit storytelling, Algonquin trickster cycles, The culture and landscape of the Canadian Maritimes
Education
| Institution | Faculty | Department | Degree | Period | Country |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Western Michigan University (Honors College) | Honors College | Zoology & English | Bachelor of Arts | 1970s 初期（学士取得） | United States |
| Indiana University, Folklore Institute | Linguistics and Folklore | Folklore studies | Master of Arts | 1974 修士取得 | United States |
Western Michigan University (Honors College)
Honors College
/ Zoology & English
Degree:
Bachelor of Arts
Period:
1970s 初期（学士取得）
Year of Graduation:
1972
Country:
United States
Reported to have received B.A. degrees in zoology and English (sources vary in detail).
Indiana University, Folklore Institute
Linguistics and Folklore
/ Folklore studies
Degree:
Master of Arts
Period:
1974 修士取得
Year of Graduation:
1974
Country:
United States
Master's thesis entitled 'Fatal Incidents of Unrequited Love in Folktales Around the World'.
Awards
| Year | Award | Work | Category | Organization | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | Guggenheim Fellowship | — | — | — | 受賞 |
| — | National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships (x3) | — | — | National Endowment for the Arts | 受賞（複数回） |
| — | National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship | — | — | National Endowment for the Humanities | 受賞 |
| 2001 | Distinguished Alumni Award, Western Michigan University | — | — | Western Michigan University | 受賞 |
| 1996 | Lannan Literary Award for Fiction | The Bird Artist | フィクション | Lannan Foundation | 受賞 |
| 1986 | Whiting Award | — | — | Whiting Foundation | 受賞 |
| 1978 | Harold Morton Landon Translation Award | The Wishing Bone Cycle | 翻訳/民俗採録 | Academy of American Poets | 受賞 |
| 1994 | New England Booksellers Association Prize (Fiction) | The Bird Artist | フィクション | New England Booksellers Association | 受賞 |
| 1994 | National Book Award (finalist) | The Bird Artist | — | National Book Foundation | 最終候補 |
| 1987 | National Book Award (finalist) | The Northern Lights | — | National Book Foundation | 最終候補 |
Guggenheim Fellowship
Result:
受賞
National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships (x3)
Organization:
National Endowment for the Arts
Result:
受賞（複数回）
National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship
Organization:
National Endowment for the Humanities
Result:
受賞
Distinguished Alumni Award, Western Michigan University
2001
Organization:
Western Michigan University
Result:
受賞
Lannan Literary Award for Fiction
1996
Work:
The Bird Artist
Category:
フィクション
Organization:
Lannan Foundation
Result:
受賞
Whiting Award
1986
Organization:
Whiting Foundation
Result:
受賞
Harold Morton Landon Translation Award
1978
Work:
The Wishing Bone Cycle
Category:
翻訳/民俗採録
Organization:
Academy of American Poets
Result:
受賞
New England Booksellers Association Prize (Fiction)
1994
Work:
The Bird Artist
Category:
フィクション
Organization:
New England Booksellers Association
Result:
受賞
National Book Award (finalist)
1994
Work:
The Bird Artist
Organization:
National Book Foundation
Result:
最終候補
National Book Award (finalist)
1987
Work:
The Northern Lights
Organization:
National Book Foundation
Result:
最終候補
Awards & Nominations
Lannan Literary Awards
3 appearances
Works
Major Works
The Bird Artist
1994 Novel (Fiction)A novel exploring a husband's psychological response to his wife's disappearance, interweaving memory and observation with bird motifs to examine loss and creativity.
lossmemorybirdsobservation
The Northern Lights
1987 Novel (Fiction)A novel set in Canada's Maritime provinces that deals with identity and belonging through regional landscapes and character studies.
regionalismidentitynature
The Wishing Bone Cycle
1976 Folklore collection / translationA poetic compilation and adaptation of Swampy Cree narratives; a significant work of recorded and reworked folklore.
tricksteroral traditionIndigenous culture
Northern Tales
1990 Children's / Folklore collectionA collection of Eskimo (Inuit) and Indigenous traditional stories; one of his early works translated into Italian and Japanese.
folktalescultural transmission
Translations
- Translated into Italian and Japanese
Bibliography
- The Wishing Bone Cycle: Narrative poems from the Swampy Cree Indians (1976)
- Who Met the Ice Lynx: Naming stories of the Swampy Cree people (1978)
- The Owl-Scatterer (1986)
- Who-Paddled-Backward-With-Trout (1987)
- The Northern Lights (1987)
- How Glooskap Outwits the Ice Giants; and other tales of the Maritime Indians (1989)
- Kiss in the Hotel Joseph Conrad and other stories (1989)
- Northern Tales: Traditional stories of Eskimo and Indian peoples (1990)
- The Bird Artist (1994)
- The Girl Who Dreamed Only Geese, and other tales of the Far North (1997)
- The Museum Guard (1998)
- Trickster and the Fainting Birds (1999)
- The Haunting of L (2002)
- Between Heaven and Earth: Bird tales from around the world (2004)
- My Famous Evening: Nova Scotia sojourns, diaries & preoccupations (2004)
- In fond Remembrance of Me (2005)
- Devotion (2007)
- What Is Left the Daughter (2010)
- I Hate to Leave This Beautiful Place (2013)
- Next Life Might Be Kinder (2014)
- My Darling Detective (2017)
- The Ghost Clause (2019)
- Come to the Window: A Novel (2024)
Translations of Works
- Northern Tales has been translated into Italian and Japanese.
Style & Themes
- Literary Style
- lyrical and detailed descriptive prosefusion of folkloristics and creative retellingpsychological, contemporary novelistic style
- Recurring Motifs
- birdstrickster cyclesthe culture/landscape of the Canadian Maritimesloss and memory
Legacy
An American writer known for crossing folklore scholarship and fiction. He reworked Cree, Inuit and Algonquin traditions into English and earned acclaim for regionally rooted novels. He has been active in teaching and his works have been translated into multiple languages.
Academic Societies
- PEN American Center
- PEN/Faulkner
Archives
- Sowell Collection / Special Collections Library, Texas Tech University (Howard Norman papers)
Quotes
-
"When I wake up in Halifax or Nova Scotia, there is a shorter distance between my unconscious life and my conscious life than anywhere else, I feel more complete and more whole."
Source: Interview (2004) (2004)
Trivia
- His parents were Russian-Polish Jewish and reportedly met in a Jewish orphanage.
- Dropped out of high school, moved to Toronto, and worked on a fire crew in Manitoba where he became interested in Indigenous folklore.
- Northern Tales was one of his first books translated into foreign languages (Italian, Japanese).
- Married to poet Jane Shore; they have one daughter.
- His papers are held in the Sowell Collection at Texas Tech University.
- Friend of playwright/author David Mamet.
- In 2003 a high-profile tragedy occurred at his Chevy Chase home involving a housesitter; it received media attention.