Lee Zacharias

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

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.