Michael Chitwood Papers
Initial Inventory (#4860)

unc seal
Manuscripts Department, Library of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Collection Information
block Descriptive Summary Including Abstract
block Administrative Information
block Online Catalog Terms
block Biographical Note
block Collection Overview
block Organization of Collection
plus Container List
Contact Information:
Manuscripts Department
CB#3926, Wilson Library
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC 27514-8890
Phone: 919/962-1345
Fax: 919/962-3594
Email: mss@email.unc.edu
URL: http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/
Processed by:
Jackie Dean
Date Completed:
January 1997
Encoded by:
Jackie Dean
Back to Top

Descriptive Summary Including Abstract

Title
Michael Chitwood Papers (#4860) 1978-
Creator
Chitwood, Michael.
Extent
About 500 items (4.0 linear feet)
Repository
Southern Historical Collection
Abstract
Michael Chitwood, a freelance writer living in Chapel Hill, N.C., was raised in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia. He has published books of poetry, including Whet (1995), Salt Works (1992), and The Weave Room (1998). The collection consists chiefly of published poems in journals and other publications of Michael Chitwood, 1978-1997. Also included are poetry journals; handwritten drafts of poems from Salt Works, Whet, and The Weave Room; drafts of miscellaneous poems; a small amount of correspondence; and some other materials regarding Chitwood's published works.
Back to Top

Administrative Information

Access
No restrictions
Usage Restrictions
Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.
Provenance
Received from Michael Chitwood in January 1997 (Acc. 97005).
Back to Top

Online Catalog Terms

American poetry--20th century.
Chitwood, Michael.
Chitwood, Michael. Salt Works.
Chitwood, Michael. The Weave Room.
Chitwood, Michael. Whet.
North Carolina--Intellectual life--20th century.
North Carolina--Poetry--History--20th century.
Poets, American--North Carolina--20th century.
Back to Top

Biographical Note

Michael Chitwood is a freelance writer living in Chapel Hill, N.C. He serves as a commentator for WUNC and edits the scientific journal Hypotenuse for the Research Triangle Institute. His two previous works of poetry, Whet (1995) and Salt Works (1992), were published by Ohio Review Books. The Weave Room was published by the University of Chicago Press in 1998. Chitwood was raised in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, attended Emory and Henry College, and received a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Virginia.

Back to Top

Collection Overview

The collection contains poetry journals kept in 1981-1985, handwritten drafts of poems from Chitwood's books, Salt Works (Ohio Review Books, 1992), Whet (Ohio Review Books, 1995), and The Weave Room (1998), along with drafts of miscellaneous poems. Included are reviews and comments regarding Salt Works, a galley for Whet, and some correspondence about Whet. The majority of the present collection consists of poems published in journals and other publications from 1978 to 1997. Also included with the poems are the essays, Gospel Music: "Charles Wright and the High Lonesome" (Iron Mountain Review, Spring 1992), "Silence of the Looms" (Southern Exposure, Summer 1992), and the short story, "Rescuing the Tango" (The Crescent Review, Spring 1992).

Back to Top

Organization of Collection

Manuscripts
Published Poems
Addition of March 1997
Back to Top

Container List

Manuscripts

Box 1
Poetry journal, 1981
Poetry journal, 1982-1984 with notes on publications
Poetry journal, 1985
Salt Works, early drafts
Salt Works, reviews/comments
Weave Room, early drafts and other prose poems
Weave Room, drafts
Weave Room, late drafts and other poems
Whet, correspondence
Whet, drafts and other poems
Whet, draft poems
Whet, galley
Whet, drafts, early drafts forWeave Room, and other poems
Miscellaneous poems, 1980
Miscellaneous poems, 1985
Miscellaneous poems, undated (4 folders)

Back to Top

Published Poems

Box 2
"Pigeon Paradise," Prism (Spring 1978)
"The Gardener's Work," Prism (Spring 1979)
"Coming of Age," Ampersand (Vol. 1, No. 1, 1980)
"Ticks," "Homer Singer's Mother's Store," Ampersand (Vol. 1, No. 2, 1980)
"Heart Failure," Appalachian Journal (Autumn 1980)
"Vegetable Plot," Tar River Poetry (Spring 1983)
"The Child," "Dirt Roads," Appalachian Journal (Spring 1984)
"Seeing Doves Light, At Dusk, New Years Eve, Virginia," Virginia Country (December 1985)
"To the Thumb," The Arts Journal (February 1987)
"Seeing the Lights," The Malahat (Fall 1987)
"Leaving Saltville," Southern Poetry Review (Fall 1987)
"Goats," Appalachian Journal (Winter 1987)
A History of the Country (chapbook) The Ohio Review (Number 42, 1988)
"Hard Surface Road," Southern Poetry Review (Fall 1989)
"Charon at the Esso," Zone 3 (Spring 1990)
"Real Jazz," The Antioch Review (Fall 1990)
Box 3
"A Sense of Place," Appalachian Journal (Fall 1990)
"Hauling Manure, Late October," Crucible (Fall 1990)
"Yellow Jacket Weather," Now and Then: The Appalachian Magazine (Fall 1990)
"In the Weave Room," Threepenny Review (Winter 1990)
"That Old Life," "Big House," Blue Pitcher (Number 6, 1990)
"Names of Aunts," Potato Eyes (Spring/Summer 1991)
"Shenandoah Valley Triptych," The Malahat Review (Spring 1991)
"The Short Bridges Into Evening," Zone 8 (Fall 1991)
"When Country People Come In," "Weave Room," Poetry East (Fall 1991)
"Confessions of My Seventy Year Old Grandmother," Country Journal (November/December, 1991)
"Juke," The Ohio Review (Number 46, 1991)
"Grease," Mississippi Review (Vol. 19, No. 3, 1991)
"Dollar," "Zero," Wolfpen Branch (1991)
Box 4
"Rescuing the Tango" (short story) The Crescent Review (Spring 1992)
"Gospel Music: Charles Wright and the High Lonesome" (essay)" The Iron Mountain Review (Spring 1992)
"Rules of Language," "Other Uses," Now and Then: The Appalachian Magazine (Spring 1992)
"Moving the Piano," "Woods Piano," "Following a Path Made by Water," "The Hardened Arm," Fine Madness (Spring/Summer 1992)
"Six Month "CutBank, (Summer 1992)
"Silence of the Looms," (essay) Southern Exposure (Summer 1992)
"Shotguns," Georgia Journal (Winter 1992)
"The Comeback," "Last Week," Quarterly West (Winter 1992)
"Trophy," Pembroke Magazine (Number 24,1992)
"Appattamox at Dusk: In the Historic Park," "Fall Day," Piedmont Literary Review (Vol. 7 No. 3, 1992)
"Heft of the Afternoon," "Lovers," The Prose Poem: An International Journal (Vol. 1, 1992)
Box 5
"The Life," Appalachian Journal (Spring 1993)
"Sugar," The Cream City Review (Spring 1993)
"The Quick," Prairie Schooner (Spring 1993)
"Correspondent," "An Explanation of the Prayer Between Meals," Fine Madness (Winter/Spring 1993)
"General Delivery," Appalachian Heritage (Summer 1993)
"Basement Barber," Poetry (April 1993)
"Assistant," Threepenny Review (Fall 1993)
"Looking for Blues," The Threepenny Review (Winter 1993)
"The Truth," The Ohio Review (Number 50, 1993)
"The Sack of the City of God," The Oxford American (Vol. 3, 1993)
"The Scars of Good Welding," Parnassus (Vol. 18 No. 2, Vol. 19, No. 1, 1993)
Box 6
"Who Knows," Poetry (February 1994)
"Flying My Hand," Potato Eyes (Winter/Spring 1994)
"Dirt Road Parables," Now and Then: The Appalachian Magazine (Summer 1994)
"Church Piano," "What Day Is This," Poetry (May 1994)
"A Chitwood Chat," (interview) Euantes (June 1994)
"Fish," "Why the Nazis Feared Jazz," Quarterly West (Summer/Fall 1994)
"Photograph of Five Men Crossing a Creek," The Southern Review (Winter 1994)
"On the Roof of the Angle Plant, Rocky Mount, Virginia," The Threepenny Review (Winter 1994)
"The Cost of Being Metaphor," "The Delivery," "Divine Instruments," Fine Madness (No. 20, 1994)
"Big House," Patient T.V. Guide: Duke University Medical Center (1-7 January 1995)
"Your People," Appalachian Journal (Winter 1995)
"Finishing Touches," (short story) Passages North (Winter 1995)
"The Rain's Ability to Expose the Dual Nature of Existence," The Threepenny Review (Winter 1995)
"The Pond," "Boy Scout," Amaryllis (Spring 1995)
"Saints in the Aisles of Route 40 Gro. and Feed," Poetry East (Spring 1995)
Box 7
"After the Missionaries," Poetry (May 1995)
"The Shop," "What to Expect," "Past Due," Field (Fall 1995)
"At the Docks," No Roses Review (Summer 1995)
"Easy Street, Continental Homes, Luck, the Destination of Southern Conversation and Dust," Tar River Poetry (Fall 1995)
"The Seasons Come and the Seasons Keep Coming," The Ohio Review (No. 54, 1995)
"By Water, Again," The Ohio Review (No. 53, 1995)
"An Explanation of 6:30," "An Explanation of 9:30," Massachusetts Review (Spring 1996)
"The Business," The Threepenny Review (Summer 1996)
"Life Sentences," Quarterly West (Autumn/Winter 1996-97)

Back to Top

Addition of March 1997 (Acc.97043)

3 items.
Received from Michael Chitwood in March 1997 (Acc. 97043).
No restrictions.
Box 8
2 published poems--March 1997
"Chalk," p. 334 Poetry (March 1997)
"Talc Like Dust," p. 31 The Sun: A Magazine of Ideas
P4680/1: Photograph of Michael Chitwood (1997)

Back to Top