The vision of The Norman Mailer Center and The Norman Mailer Writers Colony is to honor Norman Mailer’s contributions to American culture and letters, and to nurture future generations of writers. The Center will bring writers together for workshops, seminars, readings, and conferences; offer resident fellowships to promising young writer and scholarships for students; and conduct day-long workshops for fellows and students and a series of lectures by distinguished scholars, writers, filmmakers and artists.

In addition, the Center will sponsor the Norman Mailer National Writing Awards for non-fiction and fiction, and each year in collaboration with the National Council of Teachers of English the Center will also sponsor the national writing awards for high school, community college, college students and high school teachers.

It is also the Center's intention to have visiting students, writers and scolars study culture and letters throughout the United States as part of its outreach programs.

To accomplish this vision and to ensure the immediate success of the Center, the Harry Ransom Center at The University of Texas at Austin will aid in the management of the Mailer Fellows program and provide human resources. The foundation for this collaboration was laid in 2005 when the Center acquired Norman Mailer’s extensive archive.