Fred Chappell, "one of North Carolina's most celebrated writers," died on January 4 at age 87. He was a poet, novelist, essayist, longtime head of the University of North Carolina Greensboro MFA in creative writing program, and poet laureate of North Carolina from 1997 to 2002.
Altogether Chappell published nearly 30 books. The North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame said that "perhaps his most ambitious accomplishment has been four poetry collections paired with four novels, each based on one of the four elements--earth, air, fire, and water--and all reflecting Chappell's Appalachian roots as he examines the core of human experience: love, community, and mortality."
Chappell received a variety of awards, including the (Yale) Bollingen Prize in Poetry, the T.S. Eliot Prize, the Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry, the UNC System's O. Max Gardner Award for his literary work and impact on his students, the North Carolina Award for Literature, and (seven times) the Roanoke-Chowan Poetry Prize. His novel Dagon was awarded the Prix de Meilleur des Livres Étrangers.
The UNC Greensboro said that Chappell "inspired a legion of Spartan students, many of whom went on to illustrious careers in the literary arts. He kept in touch with his former students, sending notes when he read a new book or story of theirs. Ruth Dickie '04 MFA, executive director of the National Book Foundation, was one of those students. She introduced him at a Greensboro screening of the film and said, 'In all these years he has not only been doing his own critically important and exquisitely beautiful creative work, but he was also reading, and writing to, dozens if not hundreds of us, telling us that in this camp of storytellers, we all belong, and our stories don't just matter, but are essential.' "
The North Carolina Writers' Network said, "As a professor at the University of North Carolina Greensboro, Chappell has mentored several of our state;s fine poets, including Sarah Lindsay, Pulitzer-prize winner Claudia Emerson, and Kathryn Stripling Byer, who succeeded him as state Poet Laureate."
Terry Kennedy, director of the UNCG MFA in Creative Writing Program, observed, "Fred Chappell always said that his students were his greatest legacy. It's a comment that's easy to dismiss given all of Fred's publications and awards. But, hearing from so many of students today, I am reminded of the beauty of that desire. It's the kind of legacy that keeps giving back to the literary community that Ole Fred loved so much."
Chappell's family has requested that instead of flowers, donations be made to UNCG's Fred Chappell Creative Writing Fellowship Endowment Fund to support future students.