Photo by Haley Hyatt

Morris Smith lives in Valdosta, Georgia.  She studied at Valdosta State University and at Tulane University and has worked as a teacher and social worker. Smith has had three short story collections published: Spencer Road in 1997 by the University of Tennessee Press and Zambian Text in 2005 by Mercer University Press.  Above Ground: Cemetery Stories was published by Snake Nation Press and her novel, Better Than Jail  by James R. Rock, Publishers in 2009. In 1998, and again in 2010, she was nominated as Georgia Author of the Year.

Big Iris by Morris Smith

Review by Anne Gunter
Local author Morris Smith was introduced to the November meeting of the Literary Guild by her illustrator Haley Hyatt as “an amazing woman, truly adventuresome, and not in the least faint-hearted.”  To strengthen her assertion, Hyatt pointed out that following her graduation from VSU, Smith taught P.E. for 14 years at the junior high level, and then taught for 7 years in  the American military schools in Italy and Germany. She returned to the United States to enroll in the School of Social Work at Tulane university, and spent several years as a school social worker in New Orleans, where she also studied creative writing. After her retirement, she served as a volunteer in a medical mission in Zambia.
Returning to Valdosta for good, Smith embarked upon yet another career. Drawing upon her varied experiences at home and abroad, she has written and had published three books of short stories, and two novels. Her first book of short stories, Spencer Road, is a fictionalized account of her growing up in Valdosta, while Zambian Text spotlights the African experiences. Above Ground: Cemetery Stories takes place across the southern United States. Her first novel,Better than Jail, is set in colorful New Orleans.
 Smith’s second novel, Big Iris, captures the flavor of small town southern living and relationships. Twice nominated for the Georgia Author of the Year award, Smith demonstrates that she richly deserves the accolade. She deftly draws the reader into the world of Iris Whitley, who lives in fictional Hampton, Georgia, with her widowed mother Lottie, nursing supervisor at the local hospital. Nearing forty, headstrong Iris has experienced an alarming weight gain following the breakup of a relationship of which her mother did not approve. Iris’s prickly attitude toward her no-nonsense mother extends to her own colleagues and the customers of Greene Surveyors, as well as to her friends, both African-American and white. She is considering abandoning her commitment to the “Weight-Away” program. Genuinely concerned about her only daughter, Lottie arranges an appointment for her with a psychiatrist. Surprisingly, Iris relates positively to the doctor, and shows immediate progress toward gaining control over her weight and her life. Then, problems of her own making lead her into obsession, stalking, and being sued for libel. A dizzying descent into depression has Iris flirting with suicide, but the memory of  Lottie’s often-spurned advice checks the downward spiral. The story ends with an upbeat, hopeful look at Big Iris’ new outlook on life. Following the presentation, Smith answered questions from the audience, and paid tribute to her editor at Snake Nation Press, Roberta George.
-Anne Gunter, Valdosta Literary Guild