| The head of the Library of Congress is
to name Donald Hall, a writer whose deceptively simple language builds on images
of the New England landscape, as the nation's 14th poet laureate
today. Mr. Hall, a poet in the distinctive American tradition of Robert Frost, has also been a harsh critic of the religious right's influence on government arts policy. And as a member of the advisory council of the National Endowment for the Arts during the administration of George H. W. Bush, he referred to those he thought were interfering with arts grants as "bullies and art bashers". He will succeed Ted Kooser, the Nebraskan who has been the poet laureate since 2004. The announcement of Mr. Hall's appointment is to be made by James H. Billington, the Librarian of Congress. Mr. Billington said that he chose Mr. Hall because of "the sustained quality of his poetry, the reach and the variety of things he talks about." Like Mr. Kooser, Mr. Billington said, Mr. Hall "{{U}}evokes a sense of place{{/U}}." Mr. Hall, 77, lives in a white clapboard farmhouse in Wilmot, N. H. , that has been in his family for generations. He said in a telephone interview that he didn't see the poet laureateship as a bully pulpit. "But it's a pulpit anyway," he said. "If I see First Amendment violations, I will speak up." Mr. Hall is an extremely productive writer who has published about 18 books of poetry, 20 books of prose and 12 children's books. He has won many awards, including a national Book Critics Circle Award in 1989 for "The One Day," a collection. In recent years much of his poetry has been preoccupied with the death of his wife, the poet Jane Kenyon, in 1995. Robert Pinsky, who was poet laureate from 1997 to 2000 said he welcomed Mr. Hall's appointment, especially in light of his previous outspokenness about politics and arts. "There is something nicely symbolic, and maybe surprising," Mr. Pinsky said, "that they have selected someone who has taken a stand for freedom." The position carries an award of $35,000 and $5,000 travel allowance. It usually lasts a year, though poets are sometimes reappointed. |