Donald Hall (1928–2018) was born in Connecticut and lived and worked on his great-grandfather’s farm in New Hampshire. Across more than six decades and twenty books of poetry, Hall’s New England practicality, tenacious passion, and intellectual independence marked a path for literature. His memoir Unpacking the Boxes, published on his eightieth birthday, is excerpted as “Gaudeamus Igitur” in our Library. Hall was a noted essayist, children’s book author, fiction writer, and a US Poet Laureate. Among his many publications are the essay collections Essays After Eighty and A Carnival of Losses: Notes on Nearing Ninety.

From Our Interview

with Donald Hall

“Biography and Imagination”

Don read his work and talked, at his home in Wilmot, New Hampshire, with Narrative’s consulting editors Pat Gage and Caitlin McKenna. Despite an ongoing battle with his health, Hall continues to write every day, as he has for the past forty years. In these audio excerpts from the interview, Hall shares his thoughts on the interplay between biography and imagination, his writing process, and the history of poetry readings. His personal story, Unpacking the Boxes: A Memoir of a Life in Poetry, is excerpted in our Library.

AUDIO


People on couch
To continue reading please sign in.
Join for free
Already a reader? Sign In