Fred Chappell

Fred Chappell drew on the speech, landscape, and family lore of western North Carolina across a career in poetry and fiction. I Am One of You Forever, published by LSU Press, follows ten-year-old Jess as he grows up on an isolated mountain farm among his parents, grandmother, foster brother, and a procession of memorable relatives. Its linked chapters move between humor, fantasy, pathos, and lyrical descriptions of rural life, with vernacular dialogue carrying much of the book's character. The setting was especially close to Chappell, a native of Canton who taught English at UNC Greensboro for forty years. He also served as North Carolina's poet laureate from 1997 to 2002. LSU Press records more than thirty volumes of poetry and prose across his career, together with honors that included the Bollingen Prize and the T. S. Eliot Prize.