Fred Chappell

Fred Davis Chappell (May 28, 1936 – January 4, 2024) was an author and poet. He was an English professor for 40 years (1964–2004) at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He was the Poet Laureate of North Carolina from 1997 to 2002. He attended Duke University.

Chappell's 1968 novel Dagon, which was named the Best Foreign Book of the Year by the Académie française, is a recasting of a Cthulhu Mythos horror story as a psychologically realistic Southern Gothic. The Poetry Foundation describes both his poetry and prose as investigating the Southern experience by "drawing on childhood memories and the character of his home region." His first collection of poetry, The World Between the Eyes, won the Roanoke-Chowan Poetry Cup for 1971. His earliest science fiction was published in Robert Silverberg's fanzine Spaceship in 1952 and 1953.

His literary awards include the Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry, the Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger, the Bollingen Prize, and the T. S. Eliot Award for Creative Writing. He won two World Fantasy Awards for short fiction. His short story "The Somewhere Doors" from the More Shapes Than One collection won in 1992 and The Lodger won in 1994. In 2003 he was given the lifetime achievement award from the Southeastern SF Achievement Awards. He also received the O. Max Gardner Award for his teaching career.

Chappell died in Greensboro, North Carolina on January 4, 2024, at the age of 87.