HARRISS, Clarinda 1939- (Clarinda Harriss Lott)

PERSONAL:

Born March 9, 1939, in Baltimore, MD; daughter of Robert P. (a writer) and Margery (an educator; maiden name, Willis) Harriss; married Hubert E. Lott (divorced); children: Lisa, Andrew Tyler. Education: Goucher College, B.A., 1960; Johns Hopkins University, M. A., 1962. Politics: Democrat. Religion: Episcopalian, Friends. Hobbies and other interests: Grandmothering, dancing, gardening, cooking.

ADDRESSES:

Home—541 Piccadilly Rd., Towson, MD 21204. Office—Towson University, 8000 York Rd., Towson, MD 21286. E-mail—charriss@towson.edu.

CAREER:

Educator, administrator, and poet. Towson University, Towson, MD, professor and chair, English, 1971—; BrickHouse Books, Inc., Baltimore, MD, editor/director, 1973—. Member, mayor's advisory council on art and culture, 1980-89; Arttscape, 1980-98; Writers Club, Maryland House of Correction for Men, 1979—.

MEMBER:

American Civil Liberties Union, American Association of University Professors, American Association of University Women, Edgar Allan Poe Society.

AWARDS, HONORS:

First Place, Cooper House Chapbook Competition, 1994, for License Renewal for the Blind; Story short fiction competition honors, 1997, for "Elements of Structure," and short-short fiction honors, 1998, for "Sick Man Tie"; Donn Goodwin Poetry First-Place Award, Milwaukee Irish Fest, 2001, for "Aerlingus."

WRITINGS:

The Bone Tree (poetry), NPS, 1971.

(As Clarinda Harriss Lott, with Sara deFord) Forms of Verse: British and American (college text), Appleton-Century-Croft (New York, NY), 1971.

(As Clarinda Harriss Lott) The Night Parrot (poetry), Salmon Publishing (Galway, Ireland), 1988.

License Renewal for the Blind (poetry), Cooper House, 1994.

Columnist and reviewer, Baltimore Sun, 1980—. Contributor of over three hundred poems to journals and periodicals.

WORK IN PROGRESS:

Editor and collaborator, Velmarine's Page, a book-length memoir by woman incarcerated in a Texas prison; contributor to When Divas Dance (women's poetry); research on writers in prison, especially female.

SIDELIGHTS:

Clarinda Harriss told CA: "My motivation and main work tool is obsession. This is what keeps me doing my own writing while chairing a very large English department, teaching numerous courses, and running an off-campus small press."