Literary Festival features N.C. poetBy ANNA BROWN, Union County News
During USC-Union's second annual Upcountry Literary Festival, former North Carolina poet laureate Fred Chappell will receive an award that pays tribute to a famous composer with local roots.
The festival will be held March 23 and 24. Randy Ivey, an English professor at USC-Union who is helping to organize the festival, said a full roster of poets, novelists and musicians will travel from several states to make presentations at the festival.
Chappell will be the keynote presenter that Saturday morning and will be honored with the first William "Singing Billy" Walker Award for Achievement in Southern Letters.
Walker, author of "The Southern Harmony" was born in Martin's Mills, near Cross Keys, in 1809. He was instrumental in developing the "shape-note" system, a revolutionary means of teaching harmonies to rural southerners in the 19th Century. He found the words and music separately to "Amazing Grace" and was the first person to print them together. He died in Spartanburg in 1875.
Ivey said organizers of the festival felt the award was fitting for a person of Chappell's stature.
"Walker was a very important figure who did a lot of important things," Ivey said. "We thought it was fitting to name the award after him."
Gov. Jim Hunt appointed Chappell North Carolina's Poet Laureate in 1997. Chappell began teaching in the Department of English at UNC-Greensboro in 1964. In 1987 he received the O. Max Gardner Award, the highest teaching award bestowed by the University of North Carolina system, and in 1988 he was named the Burlington Industries Professor of English. He teaches advanced composition, poetry and fiction.
He also writes about poetry every month as a News & Observer book columnist. One of his first duties as poet laureate was to write and read a poem in August 1998 when President Clinton visited the state to designate the New River as an "American Heritage River," a preservation project.
Born in Canton, N.C., and educated at Duke University, Chappell has written 14 books of verse, two volumes of stories, one of criticism and eight novels.
Among the awards and honors Chappell has received over his career are the Sir Walter Raleigh Prize (1973), the North Carolina Award for Literature (1980), Yale University Library's Bollingen Prize in poetry (1985), a literature award from the National Academy of Arts and Letters (1968), the best foreign book prize from the Academie Française (1972), and the Aiken Taylor Award in poetry (1996). His works of fiction include "I Am One of You Forever" and "Brighten The Corner Where You Are."
Organizers are hoping for a good turnout for the festival, which represents the rare chance to see several noted literary professionals in a hometown setting.
The field of presenters is still being compiled, but others will include Dr. James Everett Kibler of Newberry, whose works include "Our Fathers' Fields." Kibler resides at the Hardy Plantation in Maybinton. Kibler has written or edited 11 books and more than a 100 essays, speeches and book reviews on subjects such as Southern gardens, antebellum plants, agriculture, nature, Southern art, folklore and architecture.
His latest work is "The Education of Chauncey Doolittle," a novel. Kibler will be reading from "Child to the Waters" a story about Singing Billy Walker.
Martha Daniels, who recently released a new edition of the Mary Boykin Chesnut diary, also will present. She lives on Mulberry Plantation in Camden, the original home of James and Mary Chesnut. The new diary is accompanied by a collection of personal photographs never before published.
"We are excited to have her," Ivey said. "She has gotten a lot of attention for the book."
Greenville children's book author Melinda Long also will present. Her books include "How I Became a Pirate," "Pirates Don't Change Diapers," and "The 12 Days of Christmas in S.C."
Banjo expert Alan Harrelson will perform. Harrelson's interests include Southern and Appalachian ballads.
The roster also includes poet and musician Jim Clark, a professor at Barton College in Wilson, N.C.
Admission to the festival is free.
For more information, contact Randy Ivey at rkivey@hotmail.com or call (864) 429-8728.
