User:Sraemorris

Sheila Morris is primarily a non-fiction writer known for her work as a memoirist, essayist and blogger. She also writes short stories, poetry and one of her three active blogs features her work as a photographer.

She was born in Navasota, Texas on April 21, 1946, and grew up in Richards which is on the border of Grimes and Montgomery counties in rural southeast Texas near the Sam Houston National Forest. She is the daughter of two school teachers, Dr. Glenn L. Morris and Selma Louise Boring Morris - both of whom also grew up in Richards.

Sheila is a graduate of Columbia High School in Brazoria-West Columbia and a cum laude graduate of the University of Texas in Austin. She has a master's degree with honors from the University of South Carolina in Columbia. She also did graduate studies at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas.

Her published works include Deep in the Heart: A Memoir of Love and Longing (Red Letter Press, 2007), Not Quite the Same (Red Letter Press, 2009), I'll Call it Like I See It: A Lesbian Speaks Out (Purple Books Publishing, 2012). An audio version of Deep in the Heart was released by Strawberry Skys Recording Studios in 2008. Deep in the Heart was the winner of the Golden Crown Literary Society Award in the essay category in 2008 and both of her other two books were finalists in these awards in 2010 and 2013.

Her non-fiction stories are included in Out Loud: The Best of Rainbow Radio and the 2013 Collection by the Texas Folklore Society entitled Cowboys, Cops, Killers, and Ghosts: Legends and Lore in Texas. A short story was published in the storyteller magazine in 2013.

Sheila has been a lesbian activist and advocated for social justice issues at the local, state and national levels for more than thirty years. She was a co-founder and first president of the South Carolina Gay and Lesbian Business Guild in 1993-94. She served on numerous boards and commissions in South Carolina during the 1990s and into the 21st century. She also served on the board of the national Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund and was awarded the Equality Award by the Human Rights Campaign in 1997 for her work with the GLBT community in South Carolina.

Her partner, Teresa L. Williams, has also been a strong social justice activist in her own right. They have been together since 2001.

Blogs: www.redsrantsandraves.com, www.iwillcallit.com, www.sraemorrisphoto.wordpress.com