December 12, 2006

At the Winter Solstice by Jane Kenyon

Two poets, Donald Hall and his wife, Jane Kenyon (d. 1995), and two distinct accounts of the same event, the annual Christmas pageant at the South Danbury (N.H.) Church. Both Hall and Kenyon served as Poet Laureate of New Hampshire and in October 2006, Donald Hall became Poet Laureate of the United States. The Milne Special Collections and Archives Department of the UNH Library maintains the correspondence and literary manuscripts of both poets.

The Pagent by Donald Hall

Jane Kenyon, “At the Winter Solstice,” broadside, 20×38 cm. and Donald Hall, “The Pageant,” holiday card, 29×23 cm. Published by William B. Ewert, Publisher, Concord, N.H., with illustrations by Barry Moser, in 1996 and 1995, respectively. From the William B. Ewert Collection, Milne Special Collections and Archives, UNH Library.

Courtesy of Milne Special Collections and Archives.

June 14, 2006

From the Library of Congress

Librarian of Congress James H. Billington has announced the appointment of Donald Hall to be the Library’s 14th Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry.

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 the Library of Congress National Book Festival poetry pavilion on Saturday, Sept. 30, on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

Read More…

November 8, 2005

The 2nd year of The New Hampshire Authors’ Series from the Dimond Library at the University of New Hampshire kicked off successfully on Sunday, October 23rd when Rebecca Rule interviewed popular fiction writer, Jodi Picoult, in front of more than 285 faculty, staff, students, parents, alumni and community members in the fifth floor reading room. Campus Journal ran a story and photos of the event.

The New Hampshire Authors’ Series from the Dimond Library at the University of New Hampshire is sponsored by the Friends of the UNH Library in collaboration with New Hampshire Public Television (NHPTV). Since its debut, just one year ago, the series has been a phenomenal success. Three times per year, in the style of Bravo’s “Inside the Actors’ Studio,” Yankee humorist, book reviewer and author, Rebecca Rule, invites poets, fiction and non-fiction writers, and journalists to share their insights and discoveries as they pursue their passion for writing. These one-on-one interviews are conducted in front of a live audience, recorded by NHPTV, edited to a ½ hour show for future broadcast on their program, New Hampshire Outlook, and set up for video streaming to New Hampshire public schools. Each interview is followed by a question and answer session, light refreshments, and a book signing. The programs are free and open to the public.

The programs are available via the NH Outlook website. In the inaugural year of the series, participants included:

• Donald Murray,
• Charlotte Bacon,
• Donald Hall

UNH Professor of English and award winning fiction writer, Alexander Parsons, is the next author to be interviewed on Sunday,
January 29, 2006 at 2:00 p.m.

ALEXANDER PARSONS earned degrees from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and New Mexico State University. His first novel, Leaving
Disneyland, won the 2001 Associated Writing Programs Award for the Novel and was a finalist for the 2001 PEN West Award. He has received a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship, a Texas Literary Fellowship, and a Chesterfield Screenwriting Fellowship. He teaches fiction writing at the University of New Hampshire.

“I can’t think of anything I’ve read that held me as spellbound as this superlative book. In the Shadows of the Sun is vividly authentic whether Parsons is describing the high mountain desert of New Mexico, the jungles of the Philippines, or the characters that traverse these landscapes. The book is a riveting page-turner.”
– Thom Jones, author of The Pugilist at Rest

“This is a startlingly good novel. Alexander Parsons is a hugely talented writer and unlike anyone else of his generation.”
– Robert Boswell, author of Century’s Son

Poet, Charles Simic, is confirmed for April 2, 2006 and famed children’s author and illustrator, Tomie DePaola, has agreed to
be interviewed next October. For more information, or to register, please email nh.authors@unh.edu. Or, call 603-862-3041.