Doris Betts, the novelist and longtime professor of creative writing at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, has died at her home near Pittsboro, North Carolina. She was 79 years old and suffered from lung cancer.
Professor Betts was the author of six novels and three collections of short stories. Her 1994 book, Souls Raised From the Dead, won the Southern Book Award.
Betts taught at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for 32 years. At times during her career, she was director of the freshman writing program, assistant dean, and director of the undergraduate honors program. In 1982, she became the first woman to chair the faculty.