Doris Betts
 This week’s NC Notable’s work is as skilled as that of the finest cardiologist.
Doris Betts’s novels and short stories probe every muscle, ventricle and valve of the human heart.
A Statesville native, Betts began her writing career as a journalist. She wrote for the Statesville Daily Record while still a teenager. She later wrote for newspapers in Charlotte, Greensboro, Winston-Salem, Raleigh and Sanford.
Betts is the author of nine books, including six novels and three short story collections. She taught creative writing at UNC-Chapel Hill until 2001 when she retired after 35 years of teaching. One short story, “This is the Only Time I’ll Tell It” was made in 2000 into a film.
Betts once said everything she learned about writing, she learned in Sunday school. Religion informs and inspires her work. She writes about southern blue-collar characters who wrestle with the mythic questions of life.
Betts has won numerous literary prizes, including the 1995 Southern Book Award for her novel “Souls Raised From the Dead.” She is a Sunday school teacher and occasional organist in a Pittsboro Presbyterian church.
Her willingness to unflinchingly examine the human heart and render a diagnosis make her this week’s NC Notable.
Previous NC Notables
12.08.2005 Molly Corbett Broad
12.01.2005 John Hope Franklin
11.24.2005 Richard Petty
11.17.2005 Annabelle Lundy Fetterman
11.10.2005 James Baxter Hunt
11.03.2005 Maya Angelou
10.27.2005 Mike Krzyzewski
10.20.2005 Jim Broyhill
10.13.2005 Reynolds Price
10.06.2005 Kay Yow
09.29.2005 Van Eure
09.22.2005 Mary Semans
09.15.2005 John Dornan
09.08.2005 Eva Clayton
09.01.2005 Lois Britt
08.25.2005 Fred Barber
08.18.2005 Julius Chambers
08.11.2005 Martha Guy
08.04.2005 Nido Qubein
07.28.2005 Jeanette Hyde
07.21.2005 Billy Graham
07.14.2005 Lee Smith
07.07.2005 Ralph Ketner
06.30.2005 Thomas Hearn
06.23.2005 John Allison
06.16.2005 Jim Martin
06.02.2005 Darleen Johns
05.26.2005 Hugh Morton
05.19.2005 Bernie Mann
05.12.2005 Orrin H. Pilkey
05.05.2005 William Friday
04.28.2005 Annie Louise Wilkerson
04.21.2005 Martin Lancaster
04.14.2005 Shirley Caesar
04.07.2005 Carl Fox
03.31.2005 Bob Jordan
03.24.2005 Ann T. Denlinger
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