Inkberry will host renowned poet/essayist Donald Hall at Main Street Stage June 14

One of this country’s top poets will be reading his work in North Adams later this month in an event hosted by a new cultural organization in Northern Berkshire

On Thursday, June 14, the Inkberry reading series premieres with a reading by poet/essayist Donald Hall at 7:30 p.m. at the Main Street Stage, 55.5 Main, North Adams.

Admission is free and is on a first-come, first-served basis. A suggested donation is $5.

“It’s a really big deal for us,” said Rachel Barenblat, one of the founders of Inkberry. “He’s a fabulous poet.”

It is a rare occurrence to have a writer of Hall’s caliber to read for a local cultural organization, she said.

“I hope people will come out for it,” Barenblat said of the reading.

This event will be the first of Inkberry’s monthly readings. The readings will alternate between more prominent writers/artists one month and then local writers the next. Upcoming events include a reading by Berkshire poets Michelle Gillett and Karen Pepper on July 22, and a multi-media reading/song event featuring short-story writer Pam Houston and musician Nerissa Nields at MASS MoCA on Aug. 12.

In addition to readings, Inkberry offers writing workshops and book groups; their summer session of classes begins in mid-July. To learn more, call 664-0775 or visit Inkberry online at www.inkberry.org.

Inkberry’s first two book groups and one writing group that met beginning in April were successful, Barenblat said.

“Things have been really fabulous,” she said. “We’ve been really gratified by the public response so far.”

Participants ranged in age from 13 to senior citizens and came from across Northern Berkshire as well as from Bennington, Vt., Barenblat said.

About Hall

Donald Hall was born in New Haven, Conn., in 1928. He earned a B.A. from Harvard in 1951 and a B.Litt. from Oxford in 1953. He has published 14 books of poetry, most recently Without (Houghton Mifflin 1998), which was published on the third anniversary of his wife and fellow poet Jane Kenyon’s death from leukemia. Other collections include The One Day (1988), which won the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and Pulitzer Prize nomination; The Happy Man (1986), which won the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize; and Exiles and Marriages (1955).

Besides poetry, Hall has written books on baseball, the sculptor Henry Moore, and the poet Marianne Moore; children’s books, including Ox-Cart Man (1979), which won the Caldecott Medal; short stories; and plays. He has also published several autobiographical works, including Life Work (1993), which won the New England Book award for nonfiction. He has edited more than two dozen textbooks and anthologies. He served as poetry editor of The Paris Review from 1953 to 1962, and as a member of the editorial board at Wesleyan University Press from 1958 to 1964.

His honors include two Guggenheim fellowships, the Poetry Society of America’s Robert Frost Silver medal, a Lifetime Achievement award from the New Hampshire Writers and Publisher Project, and the Ruth Lilly Prize for poetry. Hall also served as Poet Laureate of New Hampshire from 1984 to 1989. In December 1993 he and Jane Kenyon were the subject of an Emmy award-winning Bill Moyers documentary, A Life Together. He lives in Danbury, N.H., and serves as poet-in-residence at the Bennington Writing Seminars graduate program in Bennington, Vt.

About Inkberry

Founded by Barenblat, Emily Banner, and Sandy Ryan, Inkberry is an independent, nonprofit organization dedicated to fostering the literary arts in and around Berkshire County. It began activities earlier this year. Through workshops geared toward every level of writer, and a reading series that will both bring established writers into the community and promote local talent, Inkberry aims to strengthen connections between writing and life, and create a place where everyone can discover their voice.