Muriel Harris - Biography

Muriel Harris is professor emerita of English, Writing Lab Founder and Director (retired), and Editor of the Writing Lab Newsletter.

My entry into the world of writing centers began in 1976 when several graduate students and I started the Writing Lab at Purdue University. Our goal was to create a friendly environment where we could talk comfortably with students about their writing in an informal, one-to-one setting.

Because there was no network for writing center directors to communicate easily in my early days as a director, I founded the Writing Lab Newsletter, which I happily continue to edit, and which is superbly managed and produced by the company founded by Richard Hay, The RiCH Company. Richard (who worked in writing centers as a graduate student) is too modest to acknowledge this in public, but he offered to have his company manage and produce WLN at no cost to WLN, charging only for printing and postage, but not the Web site they created or the work of the support staff, Marcus Hayden and Anna Martin.

Personal history: I grew up in Chicago, IL (where other kids couldn't manage to spell or pronounce "Muriel" and began calling me "Mickey" for reasons no one ever bothered to explain to me), and then went to the University of Illinois, in Champaign-Urbana, IL. After marrying Samuel Harris (who had just completed his doctoral work in physics at the U. of Illinois and had an NSF Fellowship to work in Bonn, Germany, for a year), we spent months enjoying Europe when the exchange rate was low enough to travel around in semi-luxury on very few dollars. After Germany, we returned to New York City, where Sam had a post doc position at Columbia University and I began doctoral studies. When Sam accepted a position at Purdue University, we moved to West Lafayette, IN, where we are now retired and from which we travel to Evanston, IL to visit our daughter, her husband, and their magnificent children, and to Washington, D.C. to visit our son and his wife.

C.V.: If you're really curious about my academic work, you can browse through my curriculum vitae. Given my total and complete-bordering on fanatical-belief that writing centers are a superb (maybe even the best?) way to work with writers, the vast majority of my publications and conference presentations are about writing center theory, pedagogy, and practice. And I also wrote a brief composition handbook, PRENTICE HALL REFERENCE GUIDE. now in the 7th edition and a short pocket handbook, THE WRITER'S FAQS, now in its 3rd edition. Prentice Hall would appreciate your checking out these books. Me too.

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