Athas Decides 41 Is Enough

Posted on May 18, 2009

Daphne Athas ’43 had planned to continue teaching intermediate fiction next fall, as reported in the Carolina Alumni Review‘s May/June profile, “The Perfectly Placed Modifier.”

As she prepared for another summer visit to Greece, she decided in May to retire from the English department.

“My hearing is just not good enough to make it worthwhile for the kids,” she said. “I could do it, but it takes a lot to win ’em over. I can’t do anything without doing it wholehearted.”

This, she said, would give her more time to write. Among other projects, she is working on a “social memoir” of the years between World War II and the 1960s in Chapel Hill.

Athas has been a lecturer in UNC’s creative writing program since 1968.

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Related coverage is available online:

• The Perfectly Placed Modifier: You can’t understand the rules ’til you learn how to break them. Daphne Athas ’43 has got your back. From the May/June 2009 issue of the Carolina Alumni Review, available online to Carolina Alumni members.
• Photos from Athas’ life.

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