Renowned author and former state poet laureate Fred Chappell dies at 87

Fred Chappell, a renowned author and former state poet laureate who taught aspiring writers at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro for more than 40 years, has died.

Chappell grew up in the mill town of Canton in the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina. In a documentary about his life, Fred Chappell: I Am One of You Forever, he said he carried the mountains with him whenever he went.

He spent most of his career in Greensboro, writing and teaching in the graduate-level creative writing program he helped build.

Fellow author and UNCG educator Lee Zacharias says there are two words that come up again and again when people describe Chappell.

“Brilliant will be one," she says. "And generous will be the other.”

Zacharias says Chappell created an extensive body of work that included poetry, fiction and criticism. He won national and international awards along the way. 

But she says he may be equally well-remembered for his teaching.

“He was almost a cult figure," she says. "He was such a legend that a number of students would bring their friends. People who had met him in bars would come to this workshop. So the room was just full.”

Chappell served as poet laureate of North Carolina from 1997 to 2002 and retired from UNCG not too long after. He was 87.