(Posted 11-19-99)
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
News Service Contact: Steve Gilliam, 336-334-5371

FRED CHAPPELL FELLOWSHIP ESTABLISHED AT UNCG

GREENSBORO--Fred Chappell has given more than three decades to the creative writing program at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. In the future, he may be teaching the  first recipient of a new graduate fellowship created in his honor.

Completion of the fund drive was announced recently before a crowd attending a reading by Chappell at the UNCG Alumni House. The fellowship, called the Fred Chappell Creative Writing Fellowship, will be available to graduate students in the fall of 2001. More than $205,000 was collected in 135 gifts and pledges.

UNCG's Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program is one  of the oldest and most respected in the nation.  To maintain that reputation, a committee of supporters began working over a year ago to raise $200,000 to endow the Fred Chappell Creative Writing Fellowship. The fellowship will help attract the nation's top students.

"The reputation of this program is really stellar, and we want it to remain competitive with the other programs that are considered the best in the country," said Michael Parker, a member of the program's faculty. "We also wanted to do something to honor Fred and
his longstanding support of this program. He's done so much for us."

Barbara Moran of Greensboro chaired the fellowship's fundraising committee. Other members were Emily Wilson of Winston-Salem; Rebecca Anderson of Asheville; Porter Aichele, Sally Van Noppen Anderson, Trudy Atkins, Candy Kime, Richard Levy, A. Kelly Maness, John May, Greta Medlin and Tom Wagg, all of Greensboro.

A UNCG faculty member since 1964, Chappell was appointed the Burlington Industries Excellence Professor of English in 1988. He also has been serving as the state's poet laureate since December of 1997. During his term as poet laureate, Chappell has spoken widely across the state and has emphasized the importance of reading, writing and literacy in North Carolina. Chappell was named to the position by Gov. Jim Hunt,  succeeding Samuel T. Ragan of Southern Pines.

Chappell joined the UNCG faculty in 1964 and was appointed the Burlington Industries Professor of English in 1988. He teaches advanced composition, poetry and fiction. He is the author of eight novels, 14 volumes of poetry, two books of essays and two books of short stories. A native of Canton, in western North Carolina, Chappell holds the B.A. and M.A. degrees from Duke University.

Chappell's major literary honors include the following: the 1999 Leila Lenore Heasley Prize, presented by Lyon College; the 1996 Aiken Taylor Award in Modern American Poetry, presented by the Sewanee Review; the 1993 T.S. Eliot Award for Creative Writing, presented by the Ingersoll Foundation in Rockford, Ill.; the 1986 O. Max Gardner Award, the highest honor the University of North Carolina system can bestow on a faculty member; and the 1985 Bollingen Prize in Poetry of the Yale University Library.

Chappell's new novel, "Look Back All the Green Valley," was released earlier this fall. His most recent book of poetry, "Spring Garden: New and Collected Poems," was released in 1995. His writing projects include a new collection of poems, "Family Gathering."

Chappell's work has received wide critical recognition. In spring 2000, the University of South Carolina press will publish John Lang's volume, "Understanding Fred Chappell." His poems are the subject of a book of essays, "Dream Garden: The Poetry of Fred Chappell," released by LSU Press. He received the 1990 Thomas H. Carter Prize for the Essay given by Shenandoah, the literary review of Washington and Lee University.

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