New U.S. poet laureate to join Laura's festival
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The sixth annual Laura Bush National Book Festival Sept. 30 in Washington, D.C., will give new U.S. poet laureate Donald Hall his first public platform since he was named to the ceremonial post last month.
Hall, 78, has been entertaining a long line of reporters who have made the pilgrimage to his New Hampshire farm, Eagle Pond, since Librarian of Congress James Billington tapped him to succeed Ted Kooser.
Now, it's Hall's turn to travel, abandoning his porch rocking chair and flannel shirt to join more than 70 authors invited to the first lady's book party, modeled after the one she started in Austin when her husband was Texas governor.
Like the Texas festival that fills the grounds of the state capitol, the national affair is held in a collection of tents near the heavily guarded U.S. Capitol on the National Mall. The Library of Congress is the festival organizer.
Hall is the only major poet at the festival where fiction authors, both children and adult, make up the majority of the guest list. Among the attendees:
Khaled Hosseini ("The Kite Runner"), Julia Glass ("The Whole World Over"), Alexander McCall Smith ("The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency" series), Geraldine Brooks ("March"), Alice McDermott ("Charming Billy"), Scott Turow ("Ordinary Heroes") and a handful of crime novelists.
Some big names in the nonfiction field:
Taylor Branch ("At Canaan's Edge"), Nathaniel Philbrick ("The Mayflower"), Joan Didion ("The Year of Magical Thinking"), Douglas Brinkley ("The Great Deluge"), Doris Kearns Goodwin ("Band of Rivals") and Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin ("American Prometheus").
The authors will read, answer questions and sign autographs. Other activities will feature displays by the Library of Congress, children's activities and "the Pavilion of the States" with booths from all 50 and D.C., stressing their efforts to foster literacy.
The festival runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and is free. Its Web site, www.loc.gov/bookfest, will be updated when times for author appearances have been determined.
Hall might be tempted to stick around Washington since his only "official duty" as poet laureate is to read at the opening program of the Library of Congress' literary series in October.
However, the library has yet to pick a date for the program, leaving Hall and the rest of the nation in limbo until somebody finds a day in October when the poet isn't mending fences at Eagle Pond and can make it to Washington.
His farm, passed on to him through several generations, plays a large role in his artistic life from his poems to his essays -- "Seasons at Eagle Pond" and "Here at Eagle Pond" already published, and a third, "Eagle Pond," to appear next year.
Another theme that has occupied his work is the death of poet Jane Kenyon, his wife of 23 years, in 1995. Much of his poetry since her passing delves into that event.
The American poetry community is careful to avoid public criticism of its members, and there was no exception in Hall's case. His appointment was praised consistently by those willing to go on record.
Others who discussed Hall with me privately described this longtime fixture of the poetry scene as limited in scope and as a traditionalist in his poetic sensibility.
Still, his selection was an honor too long postponed. I eagerly await his proposals for the office and will bring word of them as soon as possible.
First Published July 18, 2006 12:00 am
