Bland Simpson

Bland Simpson is Kenan Distinguished Professor of English & Creative Writing at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and he has also been The Red Clay Ramblers’ piano player since 1986. His books include The Great Dismal, The Mystery of Beautiful Nell Cropsey, Into the Sound Country, Ghost Ship of Diamond Shoals, The Coasts of Carolina, Two Captains from Carolina, and Little Rivers & Waterway Tales, and his theatrical collaborations include Diamond Studs, Hot Grog, Life on the Mississippi, King Mackerel & The Blues Are Running, Cool Spring, Tar Heel Voices, Kudzu and Fool Moon. Simpson’s awards include the North Carolina Award for Fine Arts (2005), the N.C. Humanities Council’s John Tyler Caldwell Award in the Humanities (2017), and the UNC Chapel Hill Edward Kidder Graham Faculty Service Award (2018). In 2020, Bland Simpson was elected to the North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame, Weymouth Center, Southern Pines, NC, and he will be formally inducted in October 2022. *** Publications: Diamond Studs, The Life of Jesse James (co-author, with Jim Wann) (Musical, Samuel French, NY, 1975) The Great Dismal, A Carolinian’s Swamp Memoir (UNC Press, 1990) The Mystery of Beautiful Nell Cropsey (UNC Press, 1993) Into the Sound Country, A Carolinian’s Coastal Plain (UNC Press, 1997) King Mackerel & The Blues Are Running, Songs & Stories of the Carolina Coast (co-author, with Jim Wann, Don Dixon, & J.L. Mills)(Musical, Samuel French, NY, 1998) Kudzu, A Southern Musical (co-author, with Jack Herrick & Doug Marlette)(Samuel French, NY, 1999) Ghost Ship of Diamond Shoals (UNC Press, 2002) The Inner Islands (UNC Press, 2006) The Coasts of Carolina (UNC Press, 2010) Two Captains from Carolina (UNC Press, 2012) Little Rivers & Waterway Tales, A Carolinian’s Eastern Streams (UNC Press, 2015) North Carolina: Land of Water, Land of Sky (UNC Press, 2021)