Maddie Norris
Visiting Assistant Professor of English
Education
M.F.A., University of Arizona
B.A., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Areas of Expertise
Creative Nonfiction
Medical Humanities
Gender Studies
Trauma Narratives
Experimental Forms in Contemporary Nonfiction
Background
I’m a creative nonfiction writer excited about exploring the edges of the genre alongside students.
Prior to teaching at Davidson, I was the Kenan Visiting Writer at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. I’ve also taught at the University of Arizona, Wofford College, and through community organizations. As a teacher, I’m interested in investigating the breadth and depth of the genre, focusing on forms like memoir, personal essays, and experimental writing and content that delves into science, gender, and trauma.
My debut essay collection, The Wet Wound: An Elegy in Essays (2024), is inspired by the grief I experienced at 17 when my father died of cancer. He was a doctor specializing in wound healing, and in going through his things, I learned that, contrary to popular belief, the best way to care for wounds, physically and emotionally, is to keep them open.
My essays have won the Literary Award in Creative Nonfiction for Ninth Letter and been named notable in Best American Essays 2020 and 2022. My work can be found in Guernica, Fourth Genre, and Essay Daily, among other places. I earned my M.F.A. in creative nonfiction at the University of Arizona and, before that, was the Thomas Wolfe scholar at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
