Max Steele, 83; Author Led Creative Writing Program at UNC

Max Steele, 83, author and former head of the University of North Carolina’s creative writing program, died Aug. 1 in Chapel Hill, N.C., after a brief illness.

Steele, a UNC graduate, became director of his alma mater’s creative writing courses in 1967 and over his two-decade tenure developed a nationally recognized program. He also attended Furman and Vanderbilt universities and the Sorbonne and the Academie Julienne in Paris.

First published in Harper’s magazine in 1944 while still in college, Steele later wrote the books “Debby” and “The Cat and the Coffee Drinkers” and the story collections “Where She Brushed Her Hair” and “The Hat of My Mother.”

Steele was an editor of Story magazine and the literary magazine the Paris Review. His fiction brought him the Harper Prize, the Saxton Memorial Trust Award, the Mayflower Cub Award and the O. Henry Prize.