Kelly Cherry (1940-2022)

Kelly Cherry, the Eudora Welty Professor Emerita in English and Evjue-Bascom Professor Emerita in the Humanities, died on March 18, 2022. Ms. Cherry made her home in Halifax County. Ms. Cherry was a novelist, poet and essayist. She was named the state’s Poet Laureate by Gov. Bob McDonnell in 2010.

She is survived by her beloved Booker (her little boy).

She was preceded in death by her husband, Walter Burke Davis III.

She published twenty-one books of fiction (novels, short stories), poetry, and nonfiction (memoir, essay, criticism), nine chapbooks, and translations of two classical plays. 

Her short fiction was reprinted in Best American Short Stories, Prize Stories: The O. Henry Awards, The Pushcart Prize, and New Stories from the South, and won three PEN/Syndicated Fiction Awards. Other awards include fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Rockefeller Foundation, the Bradley Major Achievement (Lifetime) Award, A USIS Speaker Award (The Philippines), a Distinguished Alumnus Award, three Wisconsin Arts Board fellowships, two WAB New Work awards, and selection as a Wisconsin Notable Author. 

For her complete obituary, please visit this link.