Fred Chappell

Some time has passed since Governor James B. Hunt appointed me Poet Laureate of North Carolina, and this eventful, crowded, and exciting period has sharpened my awareness of the immense value of our Writers' Network to the citizens of our state.

Speaking to all sorts of groups-high school and middle school classes, community college forums, Friends of Libraries gatherings, small book clubs and large ones, scholarly meetings and other kinds-I have discovered the liveliest interest in literature of all sorts and especially in the writings of Tar Heel authors. It is widely recognized-much more widely than I had imagined-that North Carolina leads the South in quality literary production and is among the three or four top states in the nation in this regard.

I have discovered also that this bright interest sometimes lacks direction. Local leaders and devotees need to know how to contact writers and speakers, how to plan programs, how to set up conferences, how to organize and fund local projects. For answers to these, and to a hundred other questions, I always refer inquirers to the Writers' Network.

Our strong literary organization is the envy of the country. Our fall conferences are always exciting and hugely attended, helpful-and great fun. We have nifty online technology of inestimable service to writers, readers, teachers, and librarians. Our Writers' Network News is no longer a small flimsy bulletin but a classy and highly informative publication of twenty-four pages, filled with news, listings, and often provocative opinions. We sponsor important literary competitions of every sort. We have instituted programs for young people, for the underprivileged, for the handicapped-well, for everyone who evinces an interest in strong writing, fine reading.

Please excuse me if I seem to have been crowing on our behalf, but I think we have every reason to sound out proudly. Yet it is also true that none of these accomplishments could have been possible without the aid of interested and supportive friends. And we need your continued support to help us carry on as we have been doing and to institute some bright new projects we have in mind.

Without your aid, we could have done nothing. Without your future aid, we will be able to do little. So we count on your friendship, your good will, and your financial support to help us do what we alone can do, to fashion a scattered multitude of writers and readers into an active force and thus make a splendid difference in our literature, in the hearts of readers, and in the history of our state.

Best wishes and please accept the warm regards of all the administration and staff of the Writers' Network and of myself, ole Fred, as a modest representative of a splendid North Carolina literature.

Fred Chappell
North Carolina Poet Laureate

"Our strong literary organization is the envy of the country..."

More information about Fred Chappell is available at the N.C. Arts Council website.