writer sheila morris

About Sheila Morris
Sheila Morris was born and raised in rural Grimes County, Texas, and is a first-year Baby Boomer.She is a cum laude graduate of The University of Texas at Austin and has a master’s degree with honors from The University of South Carolina in Columbia. She comes from six generations of Southern Baptists and did graduate studies for two years at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, before she served as a minister of music in several churches during her early years in South Carolina prior to the inevitable severing of her ties to that part of her heritage as a result of her activism. She has overcome, and moved on. Her career as a CPA, college accounting instructor, stockbroker and financial advisor spanned four decades and three states including two years in Seattle, Washington. She received numerous awards for outstanding performance in the corporate world and retired with remarkably little fanfare from her position as vice-president of investments with a major financial services firm in 2008. She currently shares a nomadic life with her partner Teresa Williams and their four dogs as they keep the interstates and back roads busy between their homes in Columbia, South Carolina and Montgomery, Texas.

Sheila Morris the Lesbian Activist
Sheila has spent a lifetime of community involvement in actively promoting social justice issues. In the early 70s she was a member of the National Organization for Women and worked tirelessly as a volunteer in support of the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment which was ultimately defeated. She also served as a volunteer treasurer for Planned Parenthood in Columbia and in that same capacity for the Advocates for Women on Boards and Commissions. She was a volunteer for the Sickle Cell Foundation in South Carolina. In the late 80s and early 90s Sheila began her work for the GLBT community by serving on the boards of Palmetto AIDS Life Support Services in Columbia and the AIDS Benefit Foundation of South Carolina. She was a co-founder in 1993 of the South Carolina Gay and Lesbian Business Guild and served as its first President and has remained involved with that organization in various roles for the past eighteen years. She was given the Founders’ Award and various other awards by the Guild during that time. On the national level Sheila served on the board of directors for the Victory Fund and was recognized by the Human Rights Campaign with its prestigious Community Service Award for her pioneering work for the GLBT community in South Carolina.

Sheila Morris the Writer
Sheila’s first book, Deep in the Heart – A Memoir of Love and Longing, was published in the fall of 2007 and won the 2008 Golden Crown Literary Society Award for Best Short Story/Essay Collection. This book was published as an audio book in 2008 with the author reading an unabridged text. Her second book, Not Quite the Same, was published in 2009 and was also written in the memoir genre. This book was a Finalist in the GCLS Awards in the Short Story/Essay Collection in 2010. Both of these books were accepted by the South Carolina Book Festival and Sheila read and presented on panels for the 2008 and 2010 Book Festivals. Two of her essays were included in the anthology Out Loud – The Best of Rainbow Radio which was nominated for a Lambda Literary Award in 2011. She is comfortable with public readings and panel participation and is recognized for her ability to put an audience at ease with her humorous presentations. Sheila also writes a blog as her alter ego, Red, her rescued Welsh terrier. Red’s Rants and Raves is a popular blog that allows Sheila to network through Facebook, Linked-In, Stumble Upon and Word Press and interfaces well with her writer’s website.