Eastern Kentucky is remembering prolific Appalachian writer Gurney Norman who
passed away Sunday at the age of 88.
Raised near Hazard, he went to Stuart Robinson School in Letcher County in the 1940’s and 50’s.
After getting his journalism degree and serving in the Army he wrote for the Hazard Herald but then joined the U.S. Forest Service in Oregon where he began his published writing career.
WYMT reports he worked as a fiction writer, filmmaker, and cultural advocate and was selected to serve as the Poet Laureate for the Commonwealth in 2009.
In 2019, he was inducted into the Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame.
A celebration of life will be held later this year.