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Donald Hall Named New Poet Laureate of the United States

Librarian of Congress James Billington announced June 14 that Donald Hall has been named the next poet laureate of the United States. The author of 15 books of poetry, Hall will be the Library of Congress’s 14th poet laureate consultant in poetry, a 70-year-old post administered by LC’s Poetry and Literature Center.

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.

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