Chappell is the Poet Laureate of North Carolina. He was born in Canton, North Carolina. He attended Duke University. He has received grants from the Rockefeller Foundation and the National Institute of Arts and Letters. A professor at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, he resides in Greensboro with his wife Susan.
He is known for his novels, some of which are It's Time, Lord; The Inkling; The Gaudy Place; I Am One of You Forever, and his collections of short stories. Of those, his first story collection Moments of Light is available from Boson Books. Some of Chappell's books of poetry are: The World Between the Eyes, River, Bloodfire, and Wind Mountain.
