Donald Hall

Donald Hall (born 20 September 1928) is an American poet, writer, editor and literary critic. A graduate of Phillips Exeter Academy, Harvard and Oxford, Hall is the author of over 50 books across several genres from children's literature, biography, memoir, essays, and including 22 volumes of verse. Regarded as a "plainspoken, rural poet," Hall's work "explores the longing for a more bucolic past and reflects the poet’s abiding reverence for nature." Early in his career, he became the first poetry editor of The Paris Review (1953-1961), a prominent quarterly literary journal, and was noted for interviewing poets and other authors on their craft. Hall is respected for his work as an academic, having taught at Stanford University, Bennington College and the University of Michigan, who has made significant contributions to the study and craft of writing.

On 14 June 2006, Hall was appointed as the Library of Congress's 14th Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry (commonly known as "Poet Laureate of the United States"). Hall served as poet laureate for one year.