UNC Asheville will hold its 2001 formal convocation ceremony for students and their families at 3 p.m. Saturday, August 11, on the main Quadrangle. N.C. Poet Laureate Fred Chappell will give the keynote address. The event is free and open to the public.

Born in Canton and educated at Duke University, Chappell was named N.C. Poet Laureate in 1997 by former governor James. B. Hunt Jr. Chappell has received numerous other local and international awards, including the Sir Walter Raleigh Prize, the state’s highest literary honor for fiction, and the North Carolina Award for Literature. Noted as one of America’s most prolific writers, he has written 22 books, including poetry, short stories, novels and literary criticism. Chappell has been a professor of English at UNC Greensboro since 1964.

For more information, call UNCA’s Academic Affairs Office at 828/251-6470.