Mother Fell

Norma Watkins was born and raised in Mississippi during the civil rights struggles. Her memoir, The Last Resort, tells the story of that time, and won a gold medal for the best nonfiction published by an independent press in 2011. The sequel, That Woman from Mississippi, relates the consequences of self-exile. In Common, an autobiographical novel, describes the lives of two women besotted with her father. Her short pieces have been published in numerous anthologies. Watkins has a PhD in English and an MFA in Creative Writing. She is Professor Emerita at Miami Dade College, where she held an endowed chair. She taught creative writing at College of the Redwoods and Mendocino College, and lives on the northern California coast with her woodworker husband and three cats.