On the Same Poem 2011

On the Same Poem 2010 welcomes North Carolina Poet Laureate and Novelist Fred Chappell. The award-winning poet, novelist, scholar and educator will be our featured poet for Forsyth County Public Library’s On the Same Poem Luncheon, April 27th at noon in the Central Library auditorium. Mr. Chappell’s featured poems, “Passage” and “Fireflies,” are from his newest work, Shadowbox. Please bring a brown bag lunch and join us. To reserve seats, call or email Candace Brennan at 703-3022 or brennacm@forsyth.cc or Jenny Boneno at 703-2970 or barretjs@forsyth.cc.

On the Same Poem Luncheon 2010

The On the Same Poem Luncheon has become a staple of National Poetry Month in Forsyth County. On the Same Poem (an extension of On the Same Page — the county’s annual Community Read Project) is the shared experience of reading and discussing a single poem, selected for the occasion by the featured poet. Fred Chappell will be reading “Passage” and "Fireflies" from his newest work, Shadowbox at the beginning of the luncheon. Over a brown bag lunch, participants will discuss the poem, facilitated by discussion leaders at each table. The luncheon will conclude with Chappell answering questions from the audience.

As space is limited, please contact us to make reservations. For information or to reserve your seats, call or email Candace Brennan at 703-3022 or brennacm@forsyth.cc or Jenny Boneno at 703-2970 or barretjs@forsyth.cc.

Fred Chappel Biography

Fred Chappell In December 1997, Governor Jim Hunt appointed Fred Chappell North Carolina's first Poet Laureate. This is only one of many achievements for Mr. Chappell, who 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. 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, North Carolina and educated at Duke University, Mr. Chappell has written 14 books of verse, two volumes of short stories, one of criticism and eight novels.

Among the awards and honors Mr. Chappell has received over his long 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. His newest work of poetry is an innovative new collection of embedded poems, Shadow Box.

Mr. Chappell lives in Greensboro with his wife, Susan. They have one son, Heath, a jazz musician who lives in Chicago.

Shadow Box

Fred Chappell will read from his acclaimed new poetry collection, Shadow Box, which includes this year’s featured poems “Passage” and “Fireflies.” In this sharply innovative collection, Mr. Chappell layers words and images to create a new and dramatic poetic form--the poem-within-a-poem. Like the shadow box in the title, each piece consists of an inner world contained, framed, supported by an outer--the two interdependent, sometimes supplementary, often contrary. The poems delicately or wittily trace human feelings, respond somberly to the news of the world, and rejoice in humankind's plentiful variety of attitudes and beliefs.

More Information on Fred Chappell

Poetry/Rap/Song Contest for Young People

This year we have a Poetry/Rap/Song contest for young people in middle school and high school. Teens in 6th through 12th grades are invited to write an original poem, rap or song for National Poetry Month. Winners will receive signed copies of Shadow Box by Fred Chappell, lunch at On the Same Poem 2010 and a Borders gift card. Entry forms can be found at any Library location, or from your student’s teachers and media specialists. Entries must be submitted to the Teen Central Department at Central Library by 5 pm Saturday, April 10th. Central Library is located at 660 W. Fifth Street in Winston-Salem. For more information, call or email Candace Brennan at 703-3022 or brennacm@forsyth.cc or Meg Harrison at 703-3081 or webbmm@forsyth.cc.

Contest Rules

  • Writings may be on any subject, in any style.
  • This must be an original work that has not been published.
  • We can accept only 3 works per person.
  • Please submit your work typewritten, 10 or 12 point font.
  • Automatic disqualification for expletives, and derogatory or sexually explicit references.

Gilbert-Chappell Distinguished Poet Project of the N.C. Poetry Society

Fred Chappell This year we are pleased to present a program featuring Dr. Catherine Carter and Jeremy Sexton of the Gilbert-Chappell Distinguished Poet Project. The original idea of pairing North Carolina poets with young people in a mentoring collaboration came from former NC poet laureate Fred Chappell and was funded by Marie Gilbert, poet and past president of the North Carolina Poetry Society.

Dr. Catherine Carter was born on the eastern shore of Maryland. She lives with her husband in Cullowhee, NC near Western Carolina University, where she teaches and coordinates the English education program. Her first full-length collection, The Memory of Gills (LSU, 2006) received the 2007 Roanoke-Chowan Award from the North Carolina Literary and Historical Association. Dr. Carter will read from that collection, as well as from new poems to be published in May 2010 in a collection tentatively titled Occult Bat Encounters.

Jeremy Sexton is a Gilbert-Chappell student poet and Winston-Salem resident. Jeremy’s writing has received numerous awards, including the NCTE Promising Young Writers Award and the NC Poetry Society’s student contests. Earlier this year, he wrote a memoir that was printed in the R. J. Reynolds High School literary magazine Copy Write. This is his second year as a Gilbert-Chappell student poet.

The North Carolina Center for the Book funds public library readings in order to support libraries in their role as community cultural centers and to celebrate North Carolina poets and art.

A book signing and author Q & A will follow.

Saturday, April 10th, Lewisville Library @ 2:00 pm (Lewisville Library is located at 6490 Shallowford Road in Lewisville.) For more information, call or email Candace Brennan at 703-3022 or brennacm@forsyth.cc.