The library will celebrate what would have been poet Donald Hall’s 90th birthday on Thursday, September 20th. Attendees are invited to bring their favorite Donald Hall poem, read it, and briefly talk about what it means to them. Professor Emeritus Charles Simic, Hall’s successor as U.S. Poet Laureate, will anchor the reading. 

Hall, who died earlier this year, wrote dozens of books of poetry and prose; he was a longtime resident of Wilmot, NH, where he lived at Eagle Pond Farm. Hall graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy, Harvard University, and the University of Oxford and taught at the University of Michigan. He received two Guggenheim Fellowships and served as New Hampshire poet laureate from 1984-1989 and 1995-1999 before being named the 2006-2007 U.S. poet laureate.

The UNH Library’s Special Collections and Archives houses the Donald Hall Collection, which contains his correspondence, manuscripts, photographs and ephemera, along with his library of 7,000 volumes of poetry.

For those wanting to celebrate the life and work of this New Hampshire treasure, please feel free to join an afternoon of reading, reminiscence, and discussion of Hall’s poetry. For questions about either the reading or the Donald Hall Collection, please contact Special Collections Librarian Bill Ross at (603) 862-0346 or at bill.ross@unh.edu