Distinguished service award presented to Bland Simpson ’73
May 13, 2025
Board chair Ashley Reid and Dean Jim White present Bland Simpson with the Bill Little Award.
Bland Simpson ’73, Kenan Distinguished Professor of English and Creative Writing, was presented the William F. Little Distinguished Service Award in recognition of his extraordinary work as a writer, composer, musician, playwright and distinguished professor in the College of Arts and Sciences.
The award was presented April 24 at the spring 2025 board of directors meeting and 50th anniversary celebration of the Arts and Sciences Foundation.
The Bill Little Award was established in 2009 to honor a faculty or staff member who has served the College with outstanding leadership and distinction, going above and beyond the duties of his or her position, in the tradition of the late Bill Little. Recipients are selected by the dean in consultation with the chair of the board of directors.
Little was a member of the College faculty for more than 40 years, a distinguished chemist, a driving force behind the creation of Research Triangle Park and one of the founders of the Arts and Sciences Foundation.
Craver Family Dean Jim White and Arts and Sciences Foundation board chair Ashley Reid ’93 jointly presented the award to Simpson, who has taught writing for more than 40 years at Carolina.
Simpson is also the longtime pianist for the Tony Award-winning Red Clay Ramblers. He has authored 11 books, including the most recent Clover Garden: A Carolinian’s Piedmont Memoir (UNC Press). His theatrical collaborations include Diamond Studs, The Life of Jesse James; Fool Moon; King Mackerel & The Blues Are Running, Songs & Stories of the Carolina Coast; and Kudzu, A Southern Musical.
The award citation read: “We express our deepest appreciation for your leadership and service to the department of English and comparative literature and the creative writing program, as well as your commitment to teaching the next generation of songwriters and storytellers. With heartfelt gratitude, we thank you for your devotion to preserving and sharing the vibrant stories of the state of North Carolina and the broader South.”
White called Simpson “truly an icon at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.”
“One of his students described Bland as 100 percent professor, 100 percent musician and 100 percent writer,” White said.
Simpson’s awards include the North Carolina Award for Fine Arts, the N.C. Humanities Council’s John Tyler Caldwell Award in the Humanities, the North Caroliniana Society Award, the UNC-Chapel Hill Edward Kidder Graham Faculty Service Award, the Chapman Fellowship from the Institute for the Arts and Humanities, the Tanner Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, the General Alumni Association’s Faculty Service Award and induction into the North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame, among other honors.
Reid added: “Your colleagues and friends join me in expressing our deepest appreciation for your leadership and service to the department of English and comparative literature and the creative writing program.”
