Bernice Kelly Harris

Bernice Kelly Harris (October 8, 1891 – September 13, 1973) was an American novelist and playwright from North Carolina. She participated in the Federal Writers' Project of the Works Progress Administration, during which she collected biographies of people in the Southern United States.

Harris published seven novels between 1939 and 1951, including Purslane (1939), Sweet Beulah Land (1943), and Janey Jeems (1946). Her work often featured characters living in the American South, especially in eastern North Carolina.

Early life and education Harris was born in Wake County, North Carolina on October 8, 1891, to farmers William Haywood and Rosa Poole Kelly. She was one of six or seven children. Her family attended Mt. Moriah Baptist Church, and she was educated at the Mt. Moriah Academy. Harris also attended Cary High School for one year and graduated from Meredith College in 1913.

Career Harris briefly worked as a school principal in Beulaville, North Carolina before becoming a teacher at the South Fork Institute in Catwaba County. She then worked as an English teacher at Seaboard High School in Northampton County from 1917 to 1927.

In 1939, Harris published her first novel, Purslane, at the encouragement of journalist Jonathan Worth Daniels. Portulaca, the sequel to Purslane, was published in 1941.

Her 1946 novel Janey Jeems, which features an African American protagonist, was reportedly inspired by two black women whom she employed as domestic workers. Her 1948 novel Hearthstones tells the story of a Confederate Army deserter, his family, and their descendants in the Roanoke region of Virginia.

In 1961, Harris served as president of the North Carolina Literary and Historical Association. Beginning in 1963, she taught creative writing at Chowan College. Folks Plays of Eastern Carolina (1940) Portulaca (1941) Southern Home Remedies (1968) Strange Things Happen (1971)

Awards and honors In 1959, Harris received an honorary Doctor of Literature degree from Wake Forest University, and the following year, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro also presented her with an honorary doctorate.

Harris posthumously received a Brown-Hudson Folklore Award from the North Carolina Folklore Society for Southern Home Remedies (1968) and Strange Things Happen (1971).

Private life Harris married Herbert Kavanaugh Harris, a Seabord, North Carolina farmer, in May 1926.