COURTESY
WILMOT — As part of their National Poetry Month activities in April, the Wilmot Public Library will host renowned poet and close friend of the late Donald Hall, Wesley McNair, who will read his poetry and sign books at the historic Wilmot Town Hall on April 18, at 7 p.m.
The former Maine poet laureate will offer a recollection of his literary friendship with Donald Hall and Jane Kenyon that began in the middle 1970s, just after Don and Jane moved into their farmhouse at Eagle Pond in Wilmot. Interspersing his account with poems and personal anecdotes, McNair will relate how he and his new neighbors developed as poets of place, drawing on details from the same patch of ground to create New England visions that were both different and distinctive. His talk will conclude with a Q&A and signing of his new and widely admired collection, as well as other recent volumes.
A native of nearby Newport, New Hampshire, the 77-year-old-poet spent his early days in Claremont and now lives in the western Maine town of Mercer. As an educator McNair taught at the Hillsborough and the New London Central High Schools from 1963-1968 and was a visiting professor at Dartmouth College in 1984. From 1967-1987 McNair was a member of the faculty of Colby-Sawyer College and served as visiting professor there from 1999 to 2004.
As a professor at the University of Maine at Farmington from 1987 until his retirement in 2004, he founded and directed the Creative Writing program, and is currently appointed Writer in Residence at UMF.
The author of ten volumes of poetry, McNair raised the visibility of poetry in Maine through a weekly poetry column, “Take Heart,” that was published in more than two dozen Maine newspapers from 2011 to 2015. It featured poems written by poets who lived in or had ties to Maine.
McNair’s other signature activity during his tenure as poet laureate was the Maine Poetry Express, a statewide schedule of community poetry readings that convened in local churches, Grange halls, schools, and other public spaces. McNair hosted the informal events, joined by other established poets and townspeople for readings and discussions of Maine-themed poetry.
In 2006, Colby College in Maine purchased Wesley McNair’s extensive papers that encompass some 100 linear-feet in the college library’s Special Collections.
The Wilmot Public Library is celebrating National Poetry Month with readings by two well-known poets, a workshop on Blackout Poetry and a call to all local poets to submit their work to be exhibited on the Library’s Moving Wall Museum. On April 4 at 7 p.m. Wilmot resident, poet, and Colby-Sawyer professor Ewa Chruciel will read her poems and give a workshop and on Saturday, April 27 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Nancy Bates will hold a Blackout Poetry workshop. All programs and workshops are free and open to the public. More information on www.wilmotlibrary.org.
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