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Norma Stafford (born 1932) is an American poet. Born in Tennessee in 1932, she is the tenth, and final, child of her parents.[1] Stafford attended nursing school, but subsequently left when it was discovered she was lesbian. Stafford was arrested for various misdemeanors and spent five years in prison. While at the California Institution for Women, she began writing poetry and received education through the Santa Cruz Women's Prison Project (SCWPP). After being released from prison, Stafford has continued to write poetry.[2][3]
Norma Stafford | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1932 Tennessee, U.S. |
| Occupation | Poet |
| Notable work | Dear Somebody: The Prison Poetry of Norma Stafford (1975) |
| Criminal charges | Bad checks |
Life and Writing Career[edit]
Stafford was born and raised in the Tennessee hill country. She was born into a family of farmers, who lived a life of hard work and poverty. Upon turning 19 years old, Stafford broke free from the life of toil on her family's farm in order to attend nursing school in Alabama.[4] She was not in nursing school long because the school soon discovered she is a lesbian, and as a result, she had to drop out.[1]
Stafford was married for a short amount of time, during which her mother died and her father committed suicide.[4] After her marriage ended, Stafford began dating a woman, who would be her partner for 10 years. While in this relationship, Stafford was often finding herself in trouble with the law, primarily from the use of bad checks and other misdemeanors. She was sentenced to a total of five and a half years in Alabama and California state prisons as well as numerous county jails.[1]
After being released from prison around the year 1970, Stafford's long-term relationship had ended, and she was struggling to find a stable job. Being alone on the streets with no job caused Stafford to feel depressed and hopeless. As a result, she wrote multiple bad checks so that she would be sent back to prison.[5]
Stafford received parole in 1973. She has since settled down in Mendocino County, California.[1]
Discovering poetry[edit]
Stafford discovered her love for writing when she was 40 years old while serving her second term in the California Institution for Women in 1972. At this institution, a college-credit course that discussed women in society was available for the first time for the inmates through the Santa Cruz Women's Prison Project (SCWPP).[1][4] Stafford was one of the women who enrolled in the course.[1] She began to build her skills in creative writing while also developing opinions on political matters such as racism, sexism, capitalism, etc. Stafford continued to write poetry when she was released from prison, and a number of her poems have since been published.[6] Additionally, Stafford has remained involved with the SCWPP since leaving prison.[4]
The first time her poems have been published was in February, 1973, in Ms. Magazine. Shortly after, her first collection of poems, Dear Somebody: The Prison Poetry of Norma Stafford, was published in 1975. Additionally, Stafford has written a one-woman play called She Stands: The Daisy Benson Story, which opened in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1996.[1]
Selected Works[edit]
Poetry Collections[edit]
- Dear Somebody: The Prison Poetry of Norma Stafford (1975)
Stage Productions[edit]
- She Stands: The Daisy Benson Story (1996)
Poems[edit]
- "for terry and bobbie" (1973)
- "and her mugshot is taken before she has breathed" (1973)
- "Dear Somebody" (1975)
- "The Gone One" (1975)
- "to an unnamed guerilla in vietnam" (1975)
- "In Santa Cruz"
References[edit]
- ^ a b c d e f g Franklin, H. (1998). Prison Writing in 20th-Century America. Penguin Books. pp. 239–241. ISBN 978-0-14-027305-2.
- ^ Scheffler, Judith A. (2002). Wall Tappings: An International Anthology of Women's Prison Writings, 200 to the Present. Feminist Press at CUNY. p. 250. ISBN 9781558612730.
norma stafford.
- ^ Lagemann, Ellen Condliffe (2017-02-07). Liberating Minds: The Case for College in Prison. New Press, The. ISBN 9781620971239.
- ^ a b c d "Writings of Norma Stafford". Crime and Social Justice (2): 54–55. 1974. ISSN 0094-7571.
- ^ Stafford, Norma (1975). Dear Somebody: The Prison Poetry of Norma Stafford. Academy of Arts and Humanities.
- ^ Faith, Karlene (2000). "Reflections on Inside/Out Organizing". Social Justice. 27 (3 (81)): 158–167. ISSN 1043-1578.