Stephenson was born in
Benson,
Johnston County,
North Carolina to Maytle and Paul Stephenson in 1938, and lived for fourteen years with his parents and three older siblings Paul, Marshall, and Rose Stephenson in a rural farmhouse known as "Plankhouse." In 1952, the Stephensons moved to a new house, and Shelby graduated from high school in 1956; he earned his
bachelor's degree from the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1960, his
master's degree from the
University of Pittsburgh in 1967, and his
Doctorate from the
University of Wisconsin in 1974. He met his wife, Linda Letchworth "Nin" Wilson, on a blind date in 1963, and the two married in 1966. He moved back to North Carolina in the 1970s and went on to become a teacher, serving as the English department chair at
Campbell College from 1974 to 1978 before becoming a professor of English at the
University of North Carolina at Pembroke and the editor of
Pembroke Magazine from 1978 until retiring in 2010. From 2004 to 2005, he was the Gilbert-Chappell Distinguished Poet. In October 2014, Stephenson was inducted into the North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame, along with
Betty Adcock, Ronald H. Bayes, and
Jaki Shelton Green. He was later installed as the state's new poet laureate on February 2, 2015, in a ceremony at the
State Capitol with
Governor Pat McCrory,
Cultural Resources Secretary Susan Kluttz, and Wayne Martin, Executive Director of the
North Carolina Arts Council. Stephenson hopes to pursue three projects during his tenure as state laureate: holding writing workshops in assisted living and retirement communities, raising awareness of local archives and family histories, and promoting writings about farming and farm life in North Carolina. He corresponded with literary critic
M. Bernetta Quinn. ==Poet Laureate==