Chronology

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1. Civil rights era · 1945–1975

2. 1968–2009
   Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill Daphne Athas teaches creative writing at UNC

   Athas taught creative writing at UNC from 1968 until she retired from teaching in 2009. In the 1970s she took over the stylistics course Glossolalia, known for its annual student performances, and her students included Randall Kenan, Michael Parker and Sarah Dessen.

3. Recent decades · 1976–2026

4. April 22, 1992
   Publication, speech or performance · Chapel Hill The Black Cultural Center holds a reception for alumnus Randall Kenan

   UNC's Black Cultural Center held a reception for Kenan, a 1985 graduate, on the publication of his story collection Let the Dead Bury Their Dead; the Bull's Head Bookshop held an autograph party for the book the same day.

5. 1995
   Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill Randall Kenan returns to UNC as a visiting professor

   Kenan, who decided on a writing career in UNC English classes, came back to Chapel Hill in 1995 as a visiting professor, and read that February in the Second Sunday series at Wilson Library.

6. 2003–2020
   Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill Randall Kenan teaches creative writing on the UNC faculty

   Kenan joined UNC's English and Comparative Literature faculty full time in 2003 and taught fiction, nonfiction and food writing until his death in August 2020 at his home in Hillsborough.

7. November 30, 2007
   Publication, speech or performance · Hillsborough Lee Smith, Randall Kenan and Allan Gurganus gather with other authors at Brick Alley Books

   Kenan, Lee Smith and Allan Gurganus shared stories at a gathering of authors at Brick Alley Books in Hillsborough. The Daily Tar Heel used the evening to report on the town as a home for writers, quoting Smith, Gurganus, Kenan, poet laureate Mike Troy and photographer Elizabeth Matheson.

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Compiled and maintained by the Friends of the Orange County Public Library from county records, the sources named on each card, and the index’s event pages. Last updated October 1, 2026.