Hall will take up his duties in the fall, opening the library’s annual literary series in October with a reading of his work. He will also be a featured speaker at LC’s National Book Festival poetry pavilion in September, on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.
Hall succeeds Ted Kooser and joins a long line of distinguished poets who have served in the position, including most recently Louise Glück, Billy Collins, Stanley Kunitz, Robert Pinsky, Robert Hass, and Rita Dove.
On making the appointment, Billington said, “Donald Hall is one of America’s most distinctive and respected literary figures. 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.”
Posted June 14, 2006.