A lifetime of adventures has taught Mississippi writer Joe Edd Morris that a good story can begin almost anywhere: on a front porch, aboard a Mississippi River barge, in a Scottish pulpit, above the Arctic Circle or in a chance conversation with a fellow storyteller.
For decades, the University of Mississippi alumnus and New Albany, Mississippi, native has collected such moments, transforming them into fiction, essays and books. Now, with a $50,000 gift to the UM College of Liberal Arts, he hopes to help the next generation of writers do the same.
Morris — an author, career psychologist and longtime United Methodist minister — established a scholarship endowment supporting graduate-level creative writing students. The gift reflects both his lifelong love of storytelling and his desire to invest in emerging writers.
“I want to leave a legacy,” said Morris, now a resident of Tupelo, Mississippi. “But I also want to promote writing and writers. I had help getting where I am today, and I want to be helpful to these students just as others were helpful to me.”
Lee Cohen, dean of the University of Mississippi College of Liberal Arts, expressed gratitude for Morris’ gift.
“Joe Edd has lived a remarkable life rooted in curiosity, service and storytelling,” Cohen said. “His generosity will create opportunities for talented graduate writers for years to come. We are deeply grateful for his investment in creative writing and for his commitment to helping future storytellers find and share their voices.”
Morris grew up surrounded by stories.
“I’m not just a writer; I’m a Mississippi writer,” he said. “Mississippi writers are storytellers. And that comes from sitting on porches with family, hearing tales passed down through generations.”
His path to becoming a writer, however, was anything but conventional.
Morris began his college career at Ole Miss but transferred to Delta State University and then to Millsaps College, where he graduated with a degree in philosophy and English. He later returned to Ole Miss to earn his PhD in 1977. In between, he pursued theological studies at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland and, for a year, pastored a Methodist congregation in the historic coastal town of Dunbar.
There, he preached from a pulpit connected to the legacy of Scottish reformer John Knox with the ruins of an ancient castle nearby and the North Sea crashing against the rocks outside.
“I get chills thinking about it,” Morris recalled. “The ambiance was incredible.”
During breaks from his studies, he hitchhiked across Europe and traveled extensively through the Holy Land — experiences that later informed his historical and biblical fiction.
At one point, Morris accepted a position as a civilian chaplain stationed above the Arctic Circle. The remote posting provided solitude and time to write.
“That’s where my serious writing began,” he said. “There was not much to do, and I began working on a novel.”
While developing a later novel, Morris retraced the route of Confederate expatriates through Mexico, driving from Monterrey to Mexico City and stopping in towns connected to their history. For another project, he arranged passage aboard a Mississippi River barge, spending two and a half days listening to river captains tell stories that later found their way into his fiction.
“The land opened up to me,” he said of his travels. “There was a different scene at every turn of the road.”
The author of more than 15 books, his work ranges from Southern literary fiction to biblical historical novels. Morris credits curiosity with driving much of that work.
“I tell writing students the three L’s: listen, look and log,” he said. “As soon as I hear something that has the kernel of a story, I write it down.”
Along the way, he benefited from encouragement from his friend Evans Harrington and from prominent Mississippi writers, such as the late Larry Brown whose advice became Morris’ personal mantra: “Never give up” — good advice for student writers too.
The Joe Edd Morris Creative Writing Graduate Student Stipend Endowment is open to receiving gifts from individuals and organizations by sending a check with the fund noted in the memo line to the University of Mississippi Foundation, 406 University Avenue, Oxford, MS 38655.
To make a gift online, click here.
For more information about supporting the College of Liberal Arts, contact Delia Childers at dgchilde@olemiss.edu or 662-915-3086.
By Bill Dabney/UM Foundation