Mr. Chappell is a graduate of Duke University, where he studied under William Blackburn. He has gone on to publish novels, short stories, and poetry, and has had great success with all forms of literature. His novels include It Is Time, Lord (1963), I Am One of You Forever (1985), and Brighten the Corner Where You Are (1989). He has published many volumes of poetry, among them The World Between the Eyes (1971), Midquest (1981), Source (1985), First and Last Words (1989), and Spring Garden: New and Selected Poems (1995). In 1985, Mr. Chappell was awarded the Bollinger Prize. In 1997, he won the Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry. He is a seven-time winner of the Roanoke-Chowan Award, given each year for an outstanding collection of poetry by a North Carolina author. Mr. Chappell is currently the Poet Laureate of North Carolina and is a professor at East Carolina University in Greensboro, NC.