Exeter, NH (June 30, 2006)#New Hampshire poet Donald Hall, described as “…one of America’s greatest and most-admired men of letters,” has been named the Poet Laureate of 2006-07. Hall, an alumnus from the class of 1947, has written verse about life’s sorrows and celebrations for more than seven decades. His poems are rich with New Hampshire’s rural landscape - in particular, Eagle Pond Farm, where Hall’s grandmother and mother were born, and where he spent his boyhood summers before moving there permanently 30 years ago.

He began his writing career as a young boy and continued to write throughout his prep school years at Exeter. At 14, he declared his decision to become a poet and at 16, he attended the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, where he first met poet Robert Frost. Later that year, in 1944, he published his first poem.

In 1955, Hall published his first book of poetry, Exiles and Marriages. Earlier this year and 20 published books later, he released his latest work, White Apples and the Taste of Stone: Selected Poems 1946–2006 (Houghton Mifflin), a volume of his essential life’s work.

Hall has also written children’s books, including, Ox-Cart Man (1979) which won the Caldecott Medal. His numerous books of prose include Willow Temple: New and Selected Stories (2003); The Best Day the Worst Day: Life with Jane Kenyon (2005)#which chronicles life before and after his wife’s death#and a collection of his essays about poetry, Breakfast Served Any Time All Day (2003). He has written extensively about life in New Hampshire#Seasons at Eagle Pond (1987) and Here at Eagle Pond (2000). He is currently working on a third volume, Eagle Pond, scheduled for publication in 2007.

He has received dozens of accolades for his poetry, including the Lenore Marshall/Nation Award in 1987 for “The Happy Man”; the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Award in 1988 for “The One Day”; and the Ruth Lilly Prize for poetry in 1994. Hall is also the recipient of two Guggenheim Fellowships and the Poetry Society of America’s Robert Frost Silver medal. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
  
“Donald Hall is one of America’s most distinctive and respected literary figures,” Librarian of Congress James Billington said in a prepared statement. “For more than 50 years, he has written beautiful poetry on a wide variety of subjects that are often distinctly American and conveyed with passion.”

Contact:                              Julie Quinn                            Famebridge Witherspoon
                                          (603) 777-3450                     (603) 777-33430 
                                          jquinn@exeter.edu              fwitherspoon@exeter.edu