By Cheyene Miller

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Sixty years ago, Gurney Norman arrived at UK to study in the Enoch Grehan Journalism Building. Passionate about all things literature, from creative writing to documentary filmmaking, Norman is still going strong. He is now working on a novel that will include some autobiography of his life, which is rooted in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky.

Norman said his newest work will focus partially on memories from early in his life in Perry County, the first of which came when he was four years old.

“I was sitting with my grandfather, for whom I am named, when the music on the radio was interrupted by news that Japan had bombed Pearl Harbor and war had been declared,” said Norman, who also recalled memories of his hometown coal plant, which gave jobs to several of the men in his family including his father.

One of his more memorable experiences as a child was playing a game called “hobo,” in which he and his friends would hop onto trains as they were slowly taking off.

“Those who couldn’t take it would jump off soon, and the winner would be on last,” Norman said.

Norman attended UK from 1955 to 1959, where he studied journalism and English — he also wrote for the Kentucky Kernel newspaper and edited for The Kentuckian yearbook. After his time in Lexington he received a creative writing fellowship at Stanford University in California.

He lived in the San Francisco area for 15 years, where he continued his writing career while staying in touch with UK.

“I always felt close to UK,” Norman said. “It was a natural thing that after I’d written a couple of books of fiction, I came back and joined the faculty.”

Norman, 78, has now been associated with UK for 60 years as a student, alum, community college teacher and for the past 36 years as a professor in the English department.

Some of his more famous fictional works include “Divine Right’s Trip,” which tells the story of a pair of hippies traveling cross-country from California to Kentucky, and “Kinfolks: The Wilgus Stories,” which details the growth of a young Eastern Kentucky boy and his interactions with his family.

In addition to writing, several of Norman’s documentary film works have been featured on KET, including “Time on the River,” “From This Valley” and “Wilderness Road.” His film and television work frequently captures the landscape and culture of Eastern Kentucky, which he said is becoming a focal point for alternative writing and filmmaking.

“In Kentucky, there is a thriving literary community … outside the mainstream,” Norman said.

Norman said his creative work often emphasizes personal memory and how it shapes an individual’s life, and that fictional writing at its core is very personal.

“Students in my creative writing classes often hear me talk about the function of memory in fiction and autobiography,” Norman said. “Kentucky is a prime place to study such ideas.”