April 2006 - 1

Center for the Bookat the

New HampshireState Library

Book Notes April 2006 Vol. 2 , Supplement

New Hampshire’s Poets Laureate

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

Eleanor Vinton 2Paul Scott Mowrer 3Richard Eberhart 4Maxine Kumin 6Donald Hall 9Jane Kenyon 11Marie Harris 12Reader Recommendations 14Cynthia Huntington 14Patricia Fargnoli 15The Authors’ Room at NHSL 16

On April 20, 1967, New HampshireRSA230 was signed into law and theposition of Poet Laureate of NewHampshire was established, effectiveJune 19, 1967: “There is hereby es-tablished the position of poet laure-ate for the state. The governor, withthe advice and consent of the coun-cil, shall appoint the poet laureate.Said person so honored shall be aresident of the state and he shall servein such position during his lifetime.”The law goes on to recommend that“prior to the appointment of a poetlaureate the board of directors of thePoetry Society of New Hampshireshall submit to the governor andcouncil the name or names of per-sons whom they deem worthy of thehonorary position. Upon the death ofa poet laureate the society shall againsubmit to the governor and council aname or names for a successor. Theposition thus established shall be anhonorary one and the poet laureateshall not be entitled to compensa-tion.” This law had been introducedby Representative Greene ofRockingham District 22 at the urgingof the Poetry Society of New Hamp-shire (PSNH), which made Mrs.Greene an honorary member of theSociety that June.

The PSNH held a board of direc-tors meeting May 14, 1967, at whichRaymond C. Swain nominated PaulScott Mowrer for the honorary

by Mary A. Russell, Director NH Center for the Book

position of Poet Laureate. The boardvoted unanimously (Mr. Mowrer, amember of the board, abstained) infavor of the choice and authorized thePSNH president to write to Gover-nor John King with their recommen-dation. At a Governor and Councilmeeting held September 19, 1968,Paul Scott Mowrer of Chocorua wasnominated to be New Hampshire’sfirst poet laureate. Despite his hav-ing been present at the May PSNHmeeting, it was reported in the localpapers that Mr. Mowrer was un-aware of his nomination until hisneighbors began congratulating him.He was unanimously confirmed asNew Hampshire Poet Laureate inDecember of 1968. During his ten-ure Mr. Mowrer was honored at sev-eral gatherings around the state and,at the urging of Union Leader edi-tor William Loeb, he worked with alocal composer, Thomas Powers ofBedford, to set his poem “NewHampshire Hills” to music. It becamethe state’s third official state song (un-der House Bill 988) in June 1973.

On August 9, 1972 – four monthsafter the death of Paul Scott Mowrer– Eleanor Winthrop Vinton of Con-cord was confirmed by the Gover-nor and Council as the state’s sec-ond poet laureate. She had beennominated several weeks earlier byGovernor Walter R. Peterson. He hadbeen supplied with a list of nomineesby the PSNH, which was also work-ing on legislation to limit the appoint-ment to five years. He chose to nomi-nate Miss Vinton for a lifetime ap-

pointment as New Hampshire PoetLaureate. “I really was not theirchoice,” Miss Vinton explained in theConcord Monitor in February1976. “They were working to havea five-year appointment when thegovernor named me for a lifetime. Ireally do not subscribe to the viewthat there should be a five-year ap-pointment. I think the appointmentdeserves the dignity of a lifetime ap-pointment.” Miss Vinton’s views didnot sway the legislature, however, andin 1977, House Bill 329 was intro-duced by Rep. Andrea A. Scrantonof Keene limiting the term of the PoetLaureate to five years, with no re-striction on reappointment, to takeeffect “upon the expiration of theterm of the person who holds theposition of poet laureate on the ef-fective date of this act.” This bill wasapproved April 15, 1977. This is thecurrent law regarding NewHampshire’s poet laureate.

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Center for the Bookat the

New HampshireState Library

Mary A. Russell, Director603-271-2866

mrussell@library.state.nh.us

2006 Advisory Board

ChairBecky AlbertNH Educational Media Association

Vice-ChairAndrea ThorpeNH Library Association

Van McLeodNH Dept. of Cultural Resources

Dr. Lyonel B. TracyNH Dept. of Education

Michael YorkNew Hampshire State Library

Barbara YoderNew Hampshire Writers’ Project

Deborah WatrousNH Humanities Council

Patricia FargnoliPoet Laureate of New Hampshire

Carrie ThomasColby-Sawyer College

Jackie Gardner, CHILIS

Sally JonesNH Library Trustees Association

Pat FrisellaPoetry Society of New Hampshire

Eleanor StrangUrban Public Library Consortium

Willard WilliamsToadstool Bookshops

Katie McDonoughKimball Public Library, Atkinson

Eleanor Winthrop Vinton1899-1977

Born in Stoneham, Mass. on July25, 1899, Eleanor Winthrop Vintonwas one of five children of ClarenceD. and Annie M. (Downs) Vinton.Her family moved to Concord, N.H.in 1908 and Miss Vinton lived therefor the rest of her life. Following inthe footsteps of her grandmotherand her sister she began writingpoetry in grammar school. Shegraduated from Concord HighSchool in 1918. Her first publishedpoem appeared in the ConcordHigh School magazine, and as classpoet she wrote verses for the schoolpaper on each of her 45 fellowclassmates. After high school shestarted at Concord Business Col-lege, but had to leave soon after shehad begun to care for her dyingmother. After her mother’s deathshe kept house for her father andthen for a bachelor uncle. Duringthese years she also worked as aclerk at Apple Tree Book Shop

(1929-1952) and then as a practi-cal nurse in private homes (1955-1965). In later years Miss Vintonlived with her widowed sister, Mrs.Clara E. Sims, in a small whitehouse at 8 Humphrey Street in Con-cord.

Throughout her life Miss Vintonwrote poetry which was publishedin numerous newspapers, maga-zines, and journals including Bos-ton Globe, Boston Herald, Bos-ton Post, Bostonian, ChicagoDaily News, Christian ScienceMonitor, Concord Monitor, Den-ver Post, Diplomat, Farm Jour-nal, Granite Monthly, Haiku

Highlights, Hartford Courant,Journal of the American MedicalAssociation, Kaleidograph, La-dies Home Journal, Life, LynnSunday Post, Manchester UnionLeader, Monitor of Newark (NJ),New Hampshire Club Woman,New Hampshire Profiles, NewHampshire Sunday News, NewHampshire Patriot, New YorkSun, Nutmegger, Portland Or-egonian, Spur, Sunburst, KansasCity Star, Town and Country, andYankee. She explained in a news-paper interview in 1973 that she be-came a professional poet in 1928when the Chicago Daily News paidher $2 for the verse “Leap Year.”She served as editor and contribu-tor to An Anthology of NH Po-etry, NH Federation of Women’sClubs, 1938. Miss Vinton’s firstbook of poetry, Sounding PiquantVerses, was published in 1940. Hersecond volume, On the

“I have to write. Something is wrong with me if I’mnot writing.” —E.W.V. on the occasion of herconfirmation as NH Poet Laureate (August, 1972).

Contoocook, and Other Poemswas published by William L. Bauhanof Dublin, N.H. in 1974.

Eleanor Vinton enjoyed reading bi-ographies, gardening, playing the pi-ano, and swimming. She was alsoactive in a variety of organizationsthroughout her life. She served aspresident of the Concord-StratfordShakespeare Club (1969-1971);was a member of the ConcordWomen’s Club, the NH HistoricalSociety, the Epiphany Chapter ofO.E.S. Concord, the WesternWorld Haiku Society, and the Con-cord Music Club; was a chartermember of the Poetry Society of

April 2006 - 3

Paul Scott Mowrer1887-1971

Paul Scott Mowrer was born inBloomington, Ill. on July 14, 1887to Rufus and Nellie (Scott) Mowrer.He had one brother, the columnistEdgar Ansel Mowrer, who was bornin1892. His father was a merchantand the family was forced by his busi-ness troubles to move to Chicagowhen Paul was in the sixth grade. Hegraduated from Hyde Park HighSchool in Chicago in 1905. While astudent there he had begun writingpoetry and was coeditor of theschool’s literary magazine, The HydeParker. Immediately after graduat-ing his perseverance landed him hisfirst job as a reporter for the Chi-cago Daily News.

He left the paper from 1906 to 1908to attend the University of Michiganwhere he took the classes that inter-ested him and served as editor of theMichigan Daily, a university paper.

He did not receive a degree until theuniversity made him an HonoraryDoctor of Letters in 1941. While atcollege he met Winifred Adams,whom he married on May 8, 1909.They had two children: Richard ScottMowrer and David A. Mowrer.

Paul Scott Mowrer returned to theChicago Daily News in 1908 andremained there until 1945. He held avariety of positions during his careerat the Daily News including Pariscorrespondent beginning in 1910;director of the Chicago Daily News

war service in France from 1914to1918; official war correspondentaccredited to the French Army from1917 until the end of WWI; head ofthe Chicago Daily News PeaceConference Bureau from 1918to1919; associate editor and chiefeditorial writer 1934-5; editor from1935 to1944.

In 1918, Mowrer published his firstvolume of poetry: Hours of Francein Peace and War. His secondbook came out of his experiences asParis Correspondent during the firstBalkan War: Balkanized Europe: AStudy in Political Analysis and Re-construction (1921). He continuedwriting books and articles on politi-cal topics as well as publishing po-etry and several plays throughout hiscareer.

The first Pulitzer Prize given for cor-

respondence was awarded toMowrer in 1928 “for his coverageof international affairs including theFranco-British Naval Pact andGermany’s campaign for revision ofthe Dawes Plan.” He also earned theSigma Delta Chi National Scholar-ship Award in 1932 for his writingsas a foreign correspondent and hadbeen one of eight correspondentswho received the French Legion ofHonor in April 1918. He was pro-moted to “officer” in 1933. Thatsame year he and Winifred divorced,and on July 3, 1933, he married

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New Hampshire, and an honorarymember of the Massachusetts Po-etry Society.

According to the minutes of thePSNH Spring Meeting, March 27,1965: “The Richard Recchia Medalwas awarded to Eleanor Vinton forher sonnet entitled ‘Sonnet to TV’and was presented to her by KittyParsons.” She was the recipient ofnumerous other prizes over the yearsas well, including Poetry Society ofNH prizes awarded to “Flashback,”“Sonnet for Redheads,” “BroadCove,” and “Lines on a Theme ofFinality” and NH Federation ofWomen’s Clubs prizes for “AndrewJackson’s Concord Weekend” and“The Bow Controversy.”

Eleanor Vinton was named as thesecond New Hampshire Poet Lau-reate in August 1972 by GovernorWalter Peterson who called her onJuly 25th (her birthday) to notify herof her appointment. She was sug-gested for the post, which was a life-time appointment at that time, byDorothy Kendall, president of theShakespeare Club. She was hon-ored at a reception at the McDowellColony on October 22, 1972. Thereception was co-hosted by theMacDowell Colony director andGovernor and Mrs. Walter Peterson.Miss Vinton had never worked at thecolony; much of her writing wasdone while at camp on theContoocook River. As Poet Laure-ate she continued to write poemswhich appeared in various publica-tions and to do readings for localevents.

Eleanor Vinton died at ConcordHospital September 12, 1977, at theage of 83. She was buried at theBlossom Hill Cemetery. Serviceswere held on September 16, 1977,at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church,where Miss Vinton had been a pa-rishioner. Former Governor WalterPeterson was an honorary pallbearer.

“Poetry is not architecture, yet it should have a well-built form. It is not painting, yet it should depict. It isnot sculpture, yet is should be chiseled. It is not music,yet it should sing.” — P.S.M., The Mothering Land (1960), p. xxiv.

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Richard Eberhart 1904-2005

Richard Ghormley Eberhart, PulitzerPrize-winning poet and DartmouthCollege Class of 1925 Professor ofEnglish, Emeritus, died June 9, 2005at age 101.

Professor Eberhart, a 1926 gradu-ate of Dartmouth, died of naturalcauses in Hanover, N.H. after a shortillness. A memorial service will beheld in Rollins Chapel on theDartmouth campus at 2 p.m. Sun-day, June 19. A reception will followat the Top of the Hop.

Professor Eberhart was regarded asone of the nation’s finest and mosthighly honored poets. Winner of the1966 Pulitzer Prize for poetry, theBollingen Prize for Poetry from theYale University Library and the Na-tional Book Award, he also servedas New Hampshire’s Poet Laureatefrom 1979 to 1984 and as a fellowin the Academy of American Poets.He authored more than a dozen vol-umes of verse and verse drama. Hisworks include A Bravery of Earth(1930), Undercliff (1953), Shifts ofBeing (1968), and Ways of Light(1980). His poems are collected inSelected Poems, 1930-1965, forwhich he was awarded the PulitzerPrize, Collected Poems, 1930-1976 (1976), The Long Reach: Newand Uncollected Poems, 1948-1984 (1984), and New and SelectedPoems: 1930-1990 (1990). HisCollected Verse Plays was pub-lished in 1962 and his poems have

Richard Eberhart was a founder and Honorary President of the Poetry Society of New Hampshireand served as New Hampshire Poet Laureate from 1979-1984.

Reprinted Courtesy ofDartmouth CollegeOffice of Public Affairs

In Memoriam: RichardGhormley Eberhart been included in hundreds of antholo-

gies.

Dartmouth President James Wrightsaid, “The passing of Dick Eberhartrepresents a substantial loss toDartmouth, the world of poetry andthe world at large. His presence andhis work graced all three. We willmiss him greatly.”

Born in Austin, Minnesota on April5, 1904, Eberhart received a B.A.from Dartmouth. After working hisway across the South Pacific as asteamship crewman, he made his wayto England where he went on to earna B.A. and an M.A. from St. John’sCollege at Cambridge University. Hestudied at the Harvard GraduateSchool of Arts and Sciences in 1932-33. Shortly after his return from En-gland, he was recruited to tutor theson of King Prajhadipok of Siam(now Thailand), for which he wasawarded the keys to the city ofBangkok and the Order of the RoyalWhite Elephant, Third Class.

During World War II, he served inthe U.S. Naval Reserve as a Lieu-tenant and Lt. Commander and onhis discharge, worked as the assis-tant manager to the vice president ofThe Butcher Polish Company in Bos-ton. In 1952, he returned to teach-ing, serving as poet-in-residence,professor and lecturer at a variety ofinstitutions of higher learning, includ-ing the University of Washington, theUniversity of Connecticut, WheatonCollege and Princeton. In 1956, hewas appointed Professor of Englishand Poet-in-Residence atDartmouth. In 1968, he was namedClass of 1925 Professor of Englishand in 1970, he entered semi-retire-ment, but continued to teach part-

time at Dartmouth until the mid-1980s. From 1975 until the mid-80she was also a Distinguished VisitingProfessor at the University of Floridain Gainesville, his winter home.

From 1959 to 1961, ProfessorEberhart was Consultant in Poetryat the Library of Congress, in whichposition he succeeded poet RobertFrost. In 1959, he was appointed byPresident Eisenhower to the Advi-sory Committee on the Arts for theNational Cultural Center in Washing-ton. He received honorary doctor ofletters degrees from Dartmouth,Skidmore College, the College ofWooster and Colgate University. Hewas also named an honorary vicepresident of The Butcher PolishCompany and appointed to its boardof directors. In 1991, the Austin Pub-lic High School in Minnesota renamedits library the Richard Eberhart Me-dia Center during a community-widecelebration. That same year, he andhis wife turned their family home at 5Webster Terrace over to Dartmouth,which marked the site with a plaquehonoring his accomplishments. In2004, Dartmouth celebrated Profes-sor Eberhart’s life and work for his100th birthday, renaming its poetryreading room in his honor.

Those who knew him remember Pro-fessor Eberhart as warm-hearted,energetic and generous of spirit. Hispoetry, though contemplative andphilosophical, was characterized bythis passion and energy as well. Ac-cepting his National Book Award in1977, he told the assembly, “Poetsshould not die for poetry but shouldlive for it,” and it is in his poetry thathe will live in the public memory, asthe author of such verses as “TheGroundhog” which begins:

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In June, amid the golden fields,I saw a groundhog lying dead.Dead lay he; my senses shook,and mind outshot our naked frailty.There lowly in the vigorous summerHis form began its senseless change,And made my senses waver dimSeeing nature ferocious in him.

Professor Eberhart’s friend and col-league Cleopatra Mathis, Professorof English and Director ofDartmouth’s Creative Writing Pro-gram, remembers him warmly, say-ing, “Dick was one of our finestAmerican poets, not only in his workbut in his embrace of other poets. Hewas generous and openhearted, andin that way, his life exemplified whathis poems expressed.”

He loved the immortal qualities ofpoetry as he explained in an inter-view in 1979, “Poems in a way arespells against death. They are mile-stones to see where you are now, toperpetuate your feelings, to establishthem. If you have in any way touchedthe central heart of mankind’s feel-ings, you’ll survive.”

Professor Eberhart was married toHelen Elizabeth “Betty” Butcher from1941 until her death in 1993. They

spent more than four decades sum-mering in Maine on Cape Rosierwhere he would skipper his pride andjoy, a cruiser he named Rêve. In it,he ferried his large circle of fellowpoets, writers and artists to islandsfor summer picnics.

He spent his final years living quietlyat Kendal-at-Hanover, a retirementcommunity.

Professor Eberhart is survived by twochildren, son Richard Eberhart ’68of Phippsburg, Me. and daughterGretchen Eberhart Cherington ofMeriden, N.H. and six grandchildren:Ben Cherington of Boston, MollyCherington of Denver, Lena Eberhartof Brooklyn, N.Y., James Eberhart,currently serving with the PeaceCorp in Bulgaria, Samuel Eberhartand Rosalind Eberhart ofPhippsburg, Me.

Memorial gifts may be made to theAustin Public Education Foundationfor the benefit of the Richard EberhartPoetry Prizes established by his familyin 1994 annually to honor young po-ets in grades K-12 from his hometown. Donations may be sent to:Austin Public Education Foundation,Richard Eberhart Poetry Prizes, P.O.Box 878, Austin, MN 55912.

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“I think the Poet Laureate is a position thathonors poetry. It is important to any state,to any state of mind of the populace, so thatpoetry in our state would be better served.It’s not a vainglorious thing. I didn’t put infor it. If there were any work involved, Iwouldn’t have accepted. But I like to thinkI’m open-minded to about everything, Iwouldn’t be adverse to writing an occasionalpoem as poet laureate.”

—R.E. in a 1979 interview with the Concord Monitor

6 - April 2006

Maxine KuminMaxine Winokur Kumin was born onJune 6, 1925, in Philadelphia. Shespent her youth in Germantown, Pa.,a suburb of Philadelphia. Her fatherworked as a pawnbroker in the busi-ness that his father, Max Winokur,started. Her family history providedwhat she has referred to as “tribalmaterial” for her poetry, and shewrote at some length about the mem-bers of her tribe for an autobiogra-

phy in the Contemporary AuthorsAutobiography Series in 1989.

In April 1945, she met Army Ser-geant Victor Kumin (Harvard ’43)on a blind date. They were marriedin June 1946, following Maxine’sgraduation from Radcliffe. Between1948 — when Maxine Kumin com-pleted her Masters in ComparativeLiterature at Radcliffe — and 1953,

they had three children. As a youngmother she was a Great Books dis-cussion leader and worked as amedical writer. She has describedthis time in her career, when shewrote poetry only for herself, asunfulfilling.

In March 1953, Kumin sold a qua-train, “Factually Speaking,” to theChristian Science Monitor and wassoon publishing similar work in a va-riety of publications. In the winter of1956, she attended a poetry work-shop at the Boston Center for AdultEducation, where she met Anne Sex-ton. The two women – though verydifferent in their styles, poetic andotherwise – became friends, co-au-thors of children’s books and sup-porters of one another’s work. InOctober 1974, Anne Sexton com-mitted suicide. In 1979, Kumin toldan audience at a Women’s Writer’sConference that she was concernedthat she could not write after Sextondied as she had been a vital link be-tween the poet and her own art.Kumin did continue to write, how-ever, including a series of elegies forSexton that were included in OurGround Time Here Will be Brief.

Maxine Kumin taught at a variety ofschools over the years includingTufts, Columbia University,Princeton, and MIT. She was on thestaff of the Bread Loaf Writers Con-ference during the 1970s and theSewanee Writers Conference in1993.

Since 1963, Maxine Kumin and herfamily have lived on a farm in Warner,N.H., which has allowed her to fillher life with animals, including reha-bilitating abused horses. She has trav-eled extensively to teach and pro-mote poetry, including participatingin the US Information Agency’s ArtsAmerica Tour in 1983.

The Poetry of Maxine Kumin

Bringing Together: Uncollected Early Poems, 1958-1988.New York: W.W. Norton, 2003.

Closing the Ring: Selected Poems. Lewisburg, Pa.: Press ofAppletree Alley, Bucknell University, 1984.

Connecting the Dots : Poems. New York: Norton, 1996.

Halfway. New York: Holt, Rhinehart and Winston, 1961.

House, Bridge, Fountain, Gate. New York: Viking Press, 1975.

The Long Approach: Poems. New York: Viking, 1985.

The Long Marriage: Poems. New York: W.W. Norton, 2002.

Looking for Luck: Poems. New York: Norton, 1992.

The Nightmare Factory. New York: Harper & Row, 1970.

Nurture: Poems. New York: Viking, 1989.

Our Ground Time Here Will be Brief. New York: Viking Press,1982.

The Privilege. New York: Harper & Row, 1965.

The Retrieval System: Poems. New York: Viking, 1978.

Selected Poems, 1960-1990. New York: Norton, 1997.

Up Country; Poems of New England, New and Selected. NewYork: Harper & Row, 1972.

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Ms. Kumin has won numerousawards and grants including thePulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1973 andThe Sarah Josepha Hale Award in1992. In 1981, Ms. Kumin was cho-sen to serve as Poetry Consultant tothe Library of Congress. In 1989, shebecame the New Hampshire PoetLaureate.

At the age of 73, Kumin suffered abroken neck and severe internal in-juries while preparing a horse forcompetition. She described her re-covery from this accident in the bookInside the Halo and Beyond.Maxine Kumin continues to be a pro-lific writer and has published poetry,novels, essays, short stories, andchildren’s books.

In a 2002 interview in The HippoPress, Kumin was asked how she feltabout her life: “. . . I’m here, I’m mo-bile and I am still writing!”

My Elusive Guest

Thoreau loved the grayness of them, homespunwith leafy horns like lichen made of bone.God’s own horses, poor timid creatures, he saidin 1846 in THE MAINE WOODSand then went on to wonder why they stoodso high at the shoulders, why so long a head,no tail to speak of. How like the camelopard,he said, rolling the archaic wordon his tongue: high before and low behindand stayed admiring them, upwind.

A hundred years later, the widow Blauwhose rockbound farm I now inhabitbroomed a moose out of her kitchen gardenthinking it the neighbor’s brown cowmarauding among the vegetables at dawnthen looked up to behold those rabbitears, that wet nearsighted eyethat ferny rack of gray on a still-gray skyand none since. Spring mornings at first lightsometimes through fog some heavy weightshifts and wavers against the line of treesand wanting it in my blood, like a sprayof musk, I beckon the elusive guest,willing it close. My wild thing, my moose.

— Maxine Kumin

From Selected Poems, 1960-1990, W. W. Norton& Co., 1997. Reprinted with the permission of the poet.

http://www.nh.gov/nhsl/bookcenter

Book Notes (ISSN 1554-3609) is published twice per year bythe Center for the Book at the New Hampshire State Library,20 Park Street, Concord, NH 03301-6314.(c) 2006. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or inpart without permission is prohibited.

This newsletter has been madepossible in part through funds

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provided by the Institute of Museumand Library Services, a federalagency that fosters innovation,

leadership and a lifetime oflearning.

“Maybe my poetry willsave some of thoseparticular observations ofroots in the soil, the shapeand the taste and the feelof vegetables as they grow,the texture of life in thecountry, which is not Godand butterflies andbrownies but black fliesand lizards and frozenpipes and sick animals,and death, just as much asit is the autumn leaves andblue lakes.” —M.W.K. LC Information Bulletin, October 16, 1981.

8 - April 2006

Paul Scott MowrerContinued from p. 3

Hadley Richardson Hemingway (the first Mrs. Ernest Hemingway).Mowrer became the European edi-tor of the New York Post in 1945and remained there until his retire-

ment to Chocorua, N.H.in 1948.

In New Hampshire, Mowrer contin-ued to write poetry and was involvedin several poetry societies, including

The Poetry of Paul Scott Mowrer

And Let the Glory Go: Poems. Sanbornville, N.H.: Wake-BrookHouse, 1955.

The Good Comrade and Fairies. New York: E.P. Dutton, 1923.

High Mountain Pond. Francestown, N.H.: Golden Quill Press,1962.

Hours of France in Peace and War. New York: E.P. Dutton andCompany, 1918.

The Island Ireland. Francestown, N.H.: Golden Quill Press, 1966.

The Mothering Land: Selected Poems, 1918-1958. Francestown,N.H.: Golden Quill Press, 1960.

On Going to Live in New Hampshire. Sanbornville, N.H.:Wake-Brook House, 1953.

Poems Between Wars: Hail Illinois! France Farewell. With anappreciation by Carl Sandburg and a preface by Donald CulrossPeattie; illustrations by Frank Sohn. Chicago: L. Mariano, 1941.

The Poems of Paul Scott Mowrer, 1918-1966. Revised andrearranged by the Author. Francestown, NH, Golden QuillPress, 1968.

School for Diplomats. With an introduction by Loy W. Henderson;illustrated by Emery Kelen. Francestown, N.H.: Golden Quill Press1964.

This Teeming Earth. Decorated with 28 cymbolics by JeanneCaskie. Francestown, N.H.:Golden Quill Press, 1965.

Twenty-one and Sixty-five: Poems. Mill Valley, Ca.: WingsPress, 1958.

the Poetry Society of New Hamp-shire (PSNH), of which he was acharter member. He served as theguest speaker, reading his poetry atthe Society’s first meeting. He wasan active member of the Society in-cluding serving as chairman of theNational Poeteen High SchoolAwards. He recorded his poetry forthe Library of Congress in 1961 andwon the Lyric Poetry Award for tra-ditional poetry in 1961 and 1962. InOctober 1965, his poem “O LittleMen” was selected as the winner ofthe PSNH Poetry contest. At an Ex-ecutive Board meeting of the Soci-ety in 1965 “by unanimous vote PaulScott Mowrer was nominated asPoet Laureate.”

The official position of New Hamp-shire Poet Laureate was not estab-lished by the NH Legislature until1967. However, Governor John W.King and the Executive Council fol-lowed the lead of the Poetry Societyof New Hampshire and voted to ap-point Mowrer the first Poet Laure-ate of New Hampshire in Septem-ber 1968. At a PSNH meeting heldin June 1969 Mowrer explainedabout being Poet Laureate: “I wasmuch impressed with the commission,but I had to take an oath of loyalty tothe state.” At that time the Poet Lau-reate was appointed for life andMowrer went on to say “that’s prettytough, a life sentence, what’s more,I’m only 82 years old and I could behanging around for the next 50 years.But there’s a way out of that, too; itsays my tenure is subject to good be-havior.”

Mowrer’s tenure as NewHampshire’s first Poet Laureate was,sadly, shorter than he anticipated. Hedied April 7, 1971, at age 83 whilevacationing in Beaufort, S.C.

April 2006 - 9

Donald HallDonald Andrew Hall, Jr., was bornSeptember 20, 1928, in New Ha-ven, Connecticut. He grew up in a“literary household” where poetrywas read and recited and readingwas a large part of his life from anearly age. He began writing at age12 and continued through prepschool (Exeter) and college. At theage of 16 he attended the Bread LoafWriters Conference and the sameyear his first published poem ap-peared in Trails, a small magazinepublished in Esperance, N.Y.

Hall attended Harvard University,from which he received a B.A. in1951. In September 1952, he mar-ried Kirby Thompson and they wentto live in England, where Hall at-tended Oxford. While there, he wonOxford University’s Newdigate Prizefor his poem “Exile” and was widelyreported to be the first American tohave done so. In fact, he was the thirdAmerican to earn this honor. He re-ceived his B. Litt. from Oxford in1953. The couple returned to theU.S. and Hall had a fellowship atStanford University for a year beforereturning to Boston to spend threeyears in the Society of Fellows atHarvard.

During this period Hall took on avariety of projects including servingas poetry editor for Paris Review(1953-1961), doing radio broad-casts for the BBC (1959-1980), andgetting involved with The Poet’s The-ater (founded by Richard Eberhart).Hall’s first book of poems, Exilesand Marriages, was put togetherduring his years in the Society of Fel-lows at Harvard and was publishedin 1955. His first published book ofprose, about the summers he spenton his grandparents’ New Hampshirefarm, was entitled String Too Shortto be Saved and was published in1961.

Continues on page 10

The Poetry of Donald Hall

The Alligator Bride. New York: Harper, 1969.

A Blue Wing Tilts at the Edge of the Sea. London: Secker& Warburg, 1975.

Brief Lives. Concord, N.H.: William B. Ewert, 1983.

The Dark Houses. New York: Viking, 1958.

Exiles and Marriages. New York: Viking, 1955.

The Gentleman’s Alphabet Book. New York: Dutton, 1972.

Great Day in the Cows’ House. Mt. Carmel, Conn.: Ives StreetPress, 1984.

The Happy Man. New York: Random House, 1986.

Here at Eagle Pond. New York: Houghton, 1992.

Kicking the Leaves. New York: Harper, 1978.

Museum of Clear Ideas. New York: Ticknor & Fields, 1993.

Old and New Poems. New York: Ticknor & Fields, 1990.

The Old Life. New York: Houghton, 1996.

The One Day. New York: Ticknor & Fields, 1988.

The Painted Bed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2002.

A Roof of Tiger Lilies. New York: Viking, 1955.

To the Loud Wind and Other Poems. Cambridge, Mass.:Harvard Advocate, 1955.

The Town of Hill. Boston: Godine, 1975.

The Toy Bone. Brockport, N.Y.: Boa Editions, 1979.

The Twelve Seasons. Deerfield, Mass.: Deerfield Press, 1983.

Without. New York: Houghton, 1998.

The Yellow Room: Love Poems. New York: Harper, 1971.

White Apples and the Taste of Stone: Selected Poems 1946-2006.Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 2006.

10 - April 2006

Hall planned to get out of New England entirely when he began to look forwork following his Harvard fellowhip and he took the best job that wasoffered – it was also the one farthest away — at the University of Michigan,Ann Arbor. The family, which now included two children, Andrew andPhilippa, moved to Ann Arbor in 1957. Hall and his wife divorced in 1969.Aside from two separate years when Hall went to England to write, hetaught at the University of Michigan until 1975. Throughout this time hecontinued to write and publish extensively and to edit various publications.

He met Jane Kenyon, a student at the University, in 1969. They begancourting in 1971 and were married on April 17, 1972.

In 1975, Hall bought the New Hampshire farm that had belonged to hismaternal grandparents, where he had spent his boyhood summers.He had taken a leave of absence from the University and went to NewHampshire with Jane Kenyon. It didn’t take long before the couplerealized that they were in New Hampshire to stay. In August 1976, theymoved to “Eagle Pond Farm for good with seven thousand books andtwo tons of manuscript.” (Contemporary Authors Autobiography Series,vol. 7, p. 66) They lived there together until Jane Kenyon’s death in 1995.

Continued from p. 9

Donald Hall was appointedNew Hampshire Poet Laure-ate in 1984 and again in 1995when he was asked to fill thepost for the remainder of JaneKenyon’s term.

Throughout his long career Hallhas given thousands of poetryreadings at colleges, universi-ties, schools, libraries, prisons,and community centers. He haspublished dozens of books, ar-ticles, and poems and has re-ceived numerous awards in-cluding the Sarah Josepha HaleAward in 1983 and the Na-tional Book Critics CircleAward for Poetry in 1988.

He continues to write and pub-lish as well as to do readings.He read at the National BookFestival in Washington, D.C. in2005 and has just published anew book entitled WhiteApples and the Taste ofStone: Selected Poems 1946-2006 (New York: HoughtonMifflin, 2006).

Scenic View

Every year the mountainsget paler and more distant –trees less green, rock pilesdisappearing – as emulsionfrom a billion Kodakssucks color out.In fifteen yearsMonadnock and Kearsarge,the Green Mountainsand the White, will turninvisible, alltint removedatom by atom to albumsin Medford and Greenwich,while over the valleysthe still intractable graniterears with unseeable peaksfatal to airplanes.

— Donald Hall

Reprinted with thepermission of the poet.

The Boat of Quiet Hours:Poems. Saint Paul, Minn.:Graywolf Press, 1986.

Collected Poems. Saint Paul,Minn.: Graywolf Press, 2005.

Constance: Poems. Saint Paul,Minn.: Graywolf Press, 1993.

From Room to Room: Poems.Cambridge, Mass.: Alice JamesBooks, 1978.

A Hundred White Daffodils:Essays, the AkhmatovaTranslations, NewspaperColumns, Notes, Interviews,and One Poem. Saint Paul,Minn.: Graywolf Press, 1999.

Let Evening Come: Poems.Saint Paul, Minn.: GraywolfPress, 1990.

Otherwise: New and Selected.Saint Paul, Minn.: GraywolfPress, 1996.

Twenty Poems. By AnnaAndreevna Akhmatova;translated by Jane Kenyonand Vera SandomirskyDunham. Saint Paul, Minn.:Nineties Press and AllyPress, 1985.

The Workof Jane Kenyon

“The poet’s job is to finda name for everything; tobe a fearless finder of thenames of things; to be anadvocate for the beautyof language, the subtle-ties of language.”

– Jane Kenyon

April 2006 - 11

Mud Season

Here in purgatory bare groundis visible, except in shady placeswhere snow prevails.

Still, each day seesthe restoration of another animal:a sparrow, just now a sleepy wasp;and, at twilight, the skunkpokes out of the den,anxious for mates and meals. . . .

On the floor of the woodshedthe coldest imaginable ooze,and soon the first shootsof asparagus will rise,the fingers of Lazarus. . . .

Earth’s open wounds – where the plowgouged the ground last November –must be smoothed; some sownwith seed, and all forgotten.

Now the nuthatch spurns the suet,resuming its diet of flies, and the meshbag, limp and greasy, might be takendown.

Beside the porch stepthe crocus prepares an exaltationof purple, but for the momentholds its tongue. . . .

— Jane Kenyon

“Mud Season” copyright 2006by the Estate of Jane Kenyon.Reprinted from CollectedPoems with the permission ofGraywolf Press, Saint Paul,Minnesota.

Jane Kenyon 1947-1994Born May 23, 1947, in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Jane Kenyongrew up in what was, at the time, a rural part of Ann Arbor. Herfather was a jazz pianist who had toured with American dancebands and in later years gave lessons and played in local barsand clubs. Her mother was a singer and when her children wereborn (Jane had an older brother) she began working as a seam-stress and sewing teacher.

Jane Kenyon attended the University of Michigan where shemajored in French and in English, earning a B.A. in 1970 and anM.A. in 1972. While a student at Michigan she met the poetDonald Hall, who was a professor there. The two began court-ing in 1971 and were married on April 17, 1972. In 1975, Hallbought the New Hampshire farm that had belonged to his ma-ternal grandparents and the couple moved to Eagle Pond Farmwhere Kenyon would live for the rest of her life.

She had begun writing at an early age and throughout her lifeshe contributed to numerous magazines, including NewCriterion, New Republic, The New Yorker, Atlantic Monthly,Harvard Magazine, Pequod, Ploughshares, and Poetry. Shealso wrote a regular column for the Concord Monitor. She re-ceived fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts(1981), NH Commission on the Arts (1984), and theGuggenheim Foundation (1992-3) to support her work. In themid-1970s she and Joyce Perseroff founded a poetry review,Green House. They served as editors of the journal and pub-lished the work of many leading American contemporary poetsin the six issues (1976-1980).

Kenyon published four books of her own poetry during her life:From Room to Room (1978), The Boat of Quiet Hours (1986),Let Evening Come (1990), and Constance (1993). She alsopublished the translation Twenty Poems of Anna Akhmatova(1985) which she worked on with Vera Sandomirsky Dunham.Akhmatova was a favorite of Kenyon, a devoted reader, whowas also drawn especially to the work of Keats, Chekhov, andBishop.

In January 1994, Kenyon was diagnosed with leukemia. Shespent the next sixteen months fighting the disease. During thistime she was also working on what would become her fifth col-lection of poetry, Otherwise: New and Selected Poems. JaneKenyon was chosen as New Hampshire Poet Laureate in 1995.She died only a month later on April 23, 1995.

Joyce Peseroff and Alice Mattison, whom Donald Hall describesas her “writing friends,” worked with Hall to finalize the selec-tions and editing for Otherwise which was published in 1996.In 1999, A Hundred White Daffodils: Essays, Interviews,the Akhmatova Translations, Newspaper Columns, and OnePoem was published and Greywolf Press issued her CollectedPoems in 2005.

12 - April 2006

New Year, New Hampshire

“How few have ever had anything more of a choice ingovernment than in climate?”John Adams; Thoughts on Government The Hunger Moon draws icy tides upriver,heaving gray-green slabs of seawateronto the salt marshes. Inland, a houserides snow swells into eveningwhile inside the householder, satisfiedin the knowledge of a well-provisioned root cellar,a woodshed stacked with even cords,pulls the shutters to, turns from the darkening window.And still, quarrelsome winds bay down the chimney.The urge to retreat to hearthand leatherbound studies of certaintyis as strong as the pull of the moon;but there are timeswhen what we may need mostare the rude and raucous disputationsthat sputter and sparklike bonfires on frozen ponds,attracting a quorum of neighbors. — Marie Harris

On the occasion of the inauguration of Craig Benson as the 79th governor of New Hampshire January 9, 2003

Reprinted with the permission of the poet.

Marie HarrisBorn November 7, 1943, in NewYork City, Marie Harris grew up inRye, N.Y. In 1961 she began atGeorgetown University’s School ofForeign Service. She left two yearslater when she married the poet Wil-liam Matthews. Later Ms. Harris at-tended the University of North Caro-lina and completed her B.A. in En-glish at Goddard College (Vermont)in 1971. Harris and Matthews hadtwo sons, William and Sebastian.

In 1971, Ms. Harris moved to Ports-mouth, N.H. The following year sheand William Matthews divorced. Ms.Harris now resides in Barrington withher husband Charter Weeks. The twomarried in 1977 and together theyown Isinglass Studio, a business-to-business advertising firm. The coupleadopted a teenage son who is thesubject of Marie Harris’s most re-cent book of poetry: Your Sun,Manny.

Ms. Harris wrote her first poem,about a toy donkey, when she wasabout 9 years old. She has alwaysidentified herself as a writer and areader and has been publishing herwork since she was in her 20s. Herwriting has appeared in numerousjournals including Rivendell, PoetLore, Paragraph, Poetry Miscel-lany, Turnstile, Hanging Loose, So-journer, Heaven Bone, and TheFormalist. Marie Harris has pub-lished four volumes of her poetry andtwo children’s books. She has alsoedited several books, and as a travelwriter her articles have appeared inThe New York Times, The BostonGlobe and Corvette Fever.

Ms. Harris has done readings all overNew England. As her listing on theNew Hampshire Council on the Arts’Artists Roster explains: “Marie Har-ris has presented her work to school-children, college students and seniorcitizens. She has appeared before au-diences ranging from the NewHampshire State Legislature to smalltown meetings, and at conferenceson issues ranging from agriculturalsustainability and arts in education tomodern poetry and politics. She hasworked as a resident artist in publicand private schools throughout NewEngland for over 25 years. Harris isa trained voiceover specialist and shebrings drama and humor to her per-formances.”

In 1999, Governor Shaheen ap-pointed Marie Harris to be NewHampshire Poet Laureate. During herterm she organized Poetry & Poli-tics, which was the first-in-the-na-tion gathering of the state poets lau-reate. Marie Harris continues to playan active role in the New Hampshireliterary community. Recently thePortsmouth Poet Laureate Programchose her and her husband as final-ists in its “Voices and Vision” project.Their piece is titled “Working thePiscataqua” and you can see it athttp://www.marieharris.com.

April 2006 - 13

The Workof Marie Harris

Dear Winter: Poems for theSolstice. (edited) Thomaston,Me.: Northwoods Press, 1984.

An Ear to the Ground: AnAnthology of ContemporaryAmerican Poetry. (edited withKathleen Aguero) Athens:University of Georgia Press,1989.

G is for Granite: A NewHampshire Alphabet. illustratedby Karen Busch Holman.Chelsea, Mich.: Sleeping BearPress, 2002.

A Gift of Tongues: CriticalChallenges in ContemporaryAmerican Poetry. (edited withKathleen Aguero) Athens:University of Georgia Press,1987.

Interstate. Pittsburgh, Pa.:Slow Loris Press, 1980.

Primary Numbers: A NewHampshire Number Book. Il-lustrated by Karen BuschHolman. Chelsea, Mich.: Sleep-ing Bear Press, 2004.

Raw Honey. Cambridge, Mass.:Alice James Books, 1975.

Weasel in the Turkey Pen.Brooklyn, N.Y.: Hanging LoosePress, 1993.

Your Sun, Manny: A ProsePoem Memoir. Minneapolis,Minn.: New River Press, 1999.

After Miss Vinton’s death in Septem-ber 1977, a new poet laureate wasnot named until 1979 when RichardEberhart, the Honorary Presidentand one of the founders of the PSNH,was appointed to a five-year term asNew Hampshire’s Poet Laureate.Donald Hall followed in 1984, thenMaxine Kumin in 1989 and JaneKenyon in 1994. When Jane Kenyondied in April 1995, Donald Hall wasonce again appointed as New Hamp-shire Poet Laureate and served untilMarch 22, 1999.

In 1999 the position of New Hamp-shire Poet Laureate was once againthe focus of controversy when Gov-ernor Jeanne Shaheen appointedMarie Harris of Barrington withoutthe approval of the Poetry Societyof New Hampshire. As New Hamp-shire Poet Laureate, however, Har-ris brought together not only the po-ets of the Granite State, but those ofthe entire nation. What began asHarris’s search for a suitable job de-scription for a state’s poet laureatebecame Poetry and Politics – thefirst-ever gathering of poets laureatefrom across the United States. Har-ris worked with the New HampshireWriters’ Project, the NH Council onthe Arts, the Commissioner of Cul-tural Resources, and the Governor’soffice to create a two-day event inApril 2003 including free poetryreadings by state poets laureate heldall over the state; a full-day confer-ence on the role of poetry in society;and a gala dinner with keynotespeaker Dana Gioia, then recentlyappointed as Chairman of the Na-tional Endowment for the Arts. At thetime there were thirty states that hadpoets laureate, and most of them at-tended the event.

The ‘job description’ for the poet lau-reate varies from state to state, andMarie Harris explained her under-

standing of her own position in an in-terview with the New HampshireSunday News in April 2003: “I amthe public face of poetry in the statefor now and that means that from mypoint of view, my job is to promotepoetry and specifically New Hamp-shire poets.” Asked about constraintson what she can write, she contin-ued, “I don’t think any poet wouldtake the positon knowing that it camewith constraints. That would be justsort of counter to the whole point ofthe role of the artist. The role of theartist is to be a gadfly, to interpret theworld as they see it, to speak out ifthey choose and how they choose.”

On January 21, 2004, Cynthia Hun-tington was approved by the Gover-nor and Council as the state’s eighthpoet laureate. She had been nomi-nated by the Poetry Society of NewHampshire and was appointed byGovernor Craig Benson. In an inter-view with The Hippo Press in 2004Ms. Huntington described the posi-tion: “… I also think that just being awriter and staying with that and tak-ing it into everything I do is part ofbeing Poet Laureate. It’s not an out-reach mission, but an honor to po-etry in general, that one person at atime gets to represent.” In 2006, fol-lowing the lead of Robert Frost, Ms.Huntington left this “most restfulstate” and at present is living in Ver-mont. Consequently she resigned herpost.

Following the recommendation of thePSNH, Governor John Lynch ap-pointed Patricia Fargnoli of Walpoleto complete Ms. Huntington’s term,which ends in March 2009. Thenomination was approved by theGovernor and Council on December21, 2005. Ms. Fargnoli has indicatedthat she is interested in using her po-sition to introduce poetry to morepeople, both children and adults.

New Hampshire’s Poets LaureateContinued from p. 1

14 - April 2006

Cynthia Huntington

White Roses

White roses in fog,whiter than fog, spun in air,open clear on dark greenbranches below, unmoving,clutching the hillsideat the edge of the world.

The air is numbedin reflections of vapor.Only the wind is blowing,no sound of surf below the hill.Even the sea is invisible.We are not under the sky,

we are not risen,heaven has not come down.Just this blurring of worldsin dense light, these white rosesso still, they turnand look into themselves.

— Cynthia Huntington

From The Radiant.Copyright (c) 2003 Cynthia Huntington.By permission of Four Way Books.All rights reserved.

Granite StateReaders

RecommendPoetry

Please check out the completelist of Granite State readers’ rec-ommendations and tell us abouta book that you would recom-mend by visiting www.nh.gov/

nhsl/bookcenter/programs

Walpole, NHPatricia FargnoliNH Poet LaureateWhite Sea (Sarabande Books, 2005),by Cleopatra Mathis. This stunning 40poem book by one of New Hampshire’sbest poets swings from poems rich withthe landscapes of the poet’s southernchildhood to those rich withoceanscapes of outer Cape Cod. Fiercelybeautiful and often elegiac, what I likebest about them is the way they dare toexplore the meaning and location of thesoul even in the face of the mortality ofthe body. This is one of the two bestbooks of poems I’ve read in the last year.

Manchester, NHMary RussellLibrarian, NHSLThe Poetry Home Repair Manual: Prac-tical Advice for Beginning Poets (Univ.of Nebraska Press, 2005), by Ted Kooser.The intended audience for this book ispeople who write poetry, but as a readerof poetry I found it very interesting andit showed me several new ways of look-ing at poems. If you want to know moreabout what goes into the creation of apoem and how that relates to ham cubes,this is the book you want to read.

Concord, NHDon KimballPoet / Retired family therapistRebel Angels: 25 Poets of the New For-malism, edited by Mark Jarman andDavid Mason. Still the best anthology ofcontemporary poets who use meter andrhyme. David Mason’s The Poetry of Lifeand the Life of Poetry. The most delight-ful yet insightful book of essays on po-etry I’ve ever read! I am awed by waythis poet blends feeling and thoughtful-ness in what he writes; the deep humaninsights found in his essays as well ashis poetry.

Born in western Pennsylvania in1952, Cynthia Huntington, like sev-eral of New Hampshire’s PoetsLaureate, came to the Granite Stateby way of the University of Michi-gan. She began writing poems whenshe was in her 20s and began slidingpoems under the door of ProfessorDonald Hall, whom she met at theUniversity. It was the beginning ofwhat Huntington has called a“15- year tutorial,” which she cred-its with having taught her much ofwhat she knows about writing.

She began teaching at DartmouthCollege in 1989 and is Director ofCreative Writing and Professor ofEnglish there. She also teaches in theMFA in Writing program at VermontCollege in Montpelier. She has beena trustee of the New HampshireWriters’ Project and has workedwith the New Hampshire Humani-ties Council, the Arts Alliance ofNorthern New Hampshire, and theFrost Place in Franconia. She has re-ceived fellowships from, among oth-ers, the MacDowell Colony, the

N.H. State Council on theArts, and the National En-dowment for the Arts. Hun-tington was appointedNew Hampshire Poet Lau-reate in 2004.

Cynthia Huntington haspublished three books ofpoems and one memoir:The Fish Wife (Universityof Hawaii Press, 1986), WeHave Gone to the Beach(Alice James Books,1996), The Radiant (FourWay Books, 2003), andThe Salt House: A Sum-mer on the Dunes of CapeCod (University Press ofNew England, 2003). Herpoetry has also been pub-lished in numerous journalsincluding Ploughshares,TriQuarterly, and TheHarvard Review.

Until recently Huntingtonlived in Hanover with herson. In August 2006, shemoved to Thetford, Ver-mont, coincidentally thehome of Vermont’s statepoet, Grace Paley, and re-signed her position as N.H.Poet Laureate. Huntingtoncontinues to teach atDartmouth and is workingon a new book.

April 2006 - 15

Patricia Fargnoli

The Undeniable Pressure of Existence

I saw the fox running by the side of the roadpast the turned-away brick faces of the condominiumspast the Citgo gas station with its line of cars and trucksand he ran, limping, gaunt, matted dull hairedpast Jim’s Pizza, past the Wash-O-Matpast the Thai Garden, his sides heaving like bellowsand he kept running to where the interstatecrossed the state road and he reached it and ran onunder the underpass and beyond it past the perfectrows of split-levels, their identical drivewaystheir brookless and forestless yards,and from my moving car, I watched him,helpless to do anything to help him, certain he was beyondany aid, any desire to save him, and he ran loping on,far out of his element, sick, panting, starving,his eyes fixed on some point ahead of him,some possible salvationin all this hopelessness, that only he could see.

— Patricia Fargnoli

From Duties of the Spirit published by Tupelo Press.Copyright 2005 by Patricia Fargnoli. All rights reserved.Reproduced by permission of Tupelo Press.

Patricia Fargnoli, the current NewHampshire Poet Laureate, is the au-thor of Duties of the Spirit, whichwas the 2005 winner of the JaneKenyon Poetry Book Award; Nec-essary Light, which won the 1999May Swenson Book Award; andSmall Songs of Pain. She has alsopublished two chapbooks of poetry.

A member of The New HampshireCouncil on the Arts Touring Roster,she’s read her work throughout NewEngland and has published poemsin numerous journals includingPoetry, Ploughshares, Prairie

Schooner, The Laurel Review, TheIndiana Review, Poetry Northwestand The Mid-American Review.

Ms. Fargnoli holds a B.A. from Trin-ity College in Hartford, Conn. and aMaster of Social Work from the Uni-versity of Connecticut. She movedto New Hampshire from Windsor,Conn. after her three children weregrown and has now lived here forover a decade. Initially settling inKeene, Ms. Fargnoli now resides inWalpole.

In 1998, Ms. Fargnoli retired from a

career as a clinical social worker andpsychologist to devote her time toteaching and writing poetry. Thatsame year she was awarded a fel-lowship at the MacDowell Colony,and is a frequent resident at TheDorset Colony in Dorset, Vermont.She was on the faculty of The FrostPlace Poetry Festival, and has taughtat The Keene Institute of Music andRelated Arts and the New Hamp-shire Institute of Art, where she wasawarded an honorary B.F.A. Shehas taught for several years in theLifelong Learning Program of KeeneState College.

The NH Center for the Bookwishes to thank everyone whohelped to make this PoetsLaureate project possible!

Andrea ThorpeConcord Public LibraryConcord MonitorDonald HallDartmouth CollegeFour Way BooksManchester City LibraryMarie HarrisMaxine KuminNHSL staff, especially:

Frank BoucherNancy ChristianoDebra DeCotaDavid HarrisAnn HoeyClint JacksonLinda JayesLynn LangevinCharles Le BlancJane LymanRuby MattotAlice NyeCharles ShipmanJill Witham

Poetry Society of NHTodd RussellTupelo Press

16 - April 2006

Center for the Bookat the New Hampshire State Library20 Park Street Concord, NH 03301

The mission of theCenter for the

Book at the NHState Library

is to celebrate andpromote reading,books, literacy,and the literaryheritage of New

Hampshire and tohighlight

the role thatreading and

libraries play inenriching

the lives of thepeople of the

Granite State.

The NH Center for the Book Authors’ RoomPart of the mission of the Center for the Book at the New Hampshire State Library is “to celebrate and promote. . . the literary heritage of New Hampshire” and with that in mind we have established the New Hampshire Centerfor the Book Authors’ Room at the New Hampshire State Library in Concord.

According to State Librarian Michael York, “the New Hampshire Authors’ Room is a special place in the StateLibrary dedicated to New Hampshire’s writers. Its purpose is to highlight the accomplishments of New Hampshirewriters, and it is our hope that they will feel welcome here and that they will use our resources about NewHampshire.”

Currently, the Authors’ Room features a display on the works of the Granite State’s nine poets laureate includingimages of each poet, a display of their books, sample poems, and binders of resource materials on each of them.The Center for the Book plans to have a couple of different displays in the room each year that focus on somespecific aspect of New Hampshire’s literary heritage. It might be work of a particular type, such as novels orbiography; work by a particular group of writers, like the poets laureate; or writings on a specific topic, like the OldMan of the Mountain.

When asked for her thoughts on the new space, Barbara Yoder, Executive Director of the New HampshireWriters’ Project, said: “the Authors’ Room has a warm, wonderful feeling with photos of our poets laureate,beautiful book display cases, and comfortable chairs. It is a stunning, light-filled room and a great place to readbooks by New Hampshire authors.”

The Poetry Society of New Hampshire held a reading at the State Library on April 15, 2006, and they offered lightrefreshments following the reading in the Authors’ Room. We hope that this will be the first of many literarygatherings in this space.