One Poet, One Novelist— Newest Members of the NH Literary Hall of Fame
Manchester, NH, November 18, 2021 — This year, the New Hampshire Writers’ Project inducted two writers into the New Hampshire Literary Hall of Fame. The newest inductees are poet Charles Simic and the late author Anita Shreve. The announcement took place during the 2021 Literary Awards ceremony in October 2021.
The NH Literary Hall of Fame is housed at the SNHU Wolak Learning Center on the second floor of the Wolak Library Learning Commons (WLLC) building. The Hall of Fame was established to bring attention to the rich and diverse literary heritage of the state, as well as the current vibrant writing community, by honoring prominent NH writers.
Charles Simic
Ala Khaki, president of the Poets’ Society of New Hampshire, presented Charles Simic with a crystal award in recognition of his contribution to poetry. “Charlie Simic is a giant for his incredible body of work and for what is reflected in his poetry,” said Khaki. He went on to say that, “Poets are the legislatures of the world. They shape the conscience of society. You have a lot of that in your work. I welcome you to the Literary Hall of Fame.”
Simic, a former U.S. Poet Laureate, joined the ceremony from his home. Genuinely appreciative of receiving this recognition, he shared some of his life experiences with attendees, including growing up in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, during WWII and his eventual move to the quaint town of Durham, New Hampshire. Simic, along with his family, emigrated to the United States when he was a teenager. His life experience in war-torn Yugoslavia became the focus for many of his renowned poems.
Simic lived in Chicago and New York City before taking a teaching position at a university in California. While there, the school increased the course load for professors, which did not appeal to Simic. He had been receiving letters from the University of New Hampshire (UNH) asking him to teach for quite a while. The increased number of classes was the nudge he needed to visit UNH. To his astonishment, he liked the small-town feel of Durham and the beauty of the Seacoast. He took the position at UNH and spent over thirty years teaching English and creative writing.
Simic continued writing poetry and developed a deepening respect and admiration for some of the authors and poets who were also from the New England area. “They didn’t try to imitate anyone. They were, by and large, skeptics. I was slowly captivated by NH’s history and its people,” he said. “So, I am delighted to receive this award.”
Simic has written nearly thirty collections of poetry and essays. He has also deepened our understanding of European literature by translating the works of poets abroad. In addition to being inducted into the NH Literary Hall of Fame, he has received numerous awards, including fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts. He was elected to The American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1995 and was the recipient of the 2011 Frost Medal, presented annually for “lifetime achievement in poetry.”
Anita Shreve
Both hosts of the Literary Awards Ceremony, author Robert Wheeler and his wife Meme, announced the posthumous induction of novelist Anita Shreve. “Anita Shreve values the journey, the tough times and the pressure to become a writer,” said Wheeler. He shared one of his favorite quotes from her book, The Last Time They Met: “To ward off a feeling of failure, she (the protagonist) joked she could wallpaper her bathroom with rejection slips, which she chose not to see as messages to stop but rather as tickets to the game.”
Meme Wheeler shared that as a social worker, she is moved by Shreve’s ability to “tap into all the dimensions of family dynamics, from trust to betrayal, to joy, to grief.” She mentioned that her favorite book by Shreve is The Weight of Water.
Many of Shreve’s books featured women in stressful situations, a setup she found rich in possibilities. She wove many emotions together with an element of mystery in her plots.
Shreve was a Boston native and a Tufts graduate. She taught as a high school teacher in the greater Boston area, but left teaching to pursue her passion for writing. She worked as a freelance journalist while drafting her first book, Eden Close. In 1999, Shreve caught her big break when Oprah Winfrey selected her book, The Pilot’s Wife, for Oprah’s Book Club. While she enjoyed the fame, she believed that being selected for Oprah’s book club forever changed the view of her books from “literary to commercial.” In an interview, she once said, “I don’t think I could ever say aloud that I’m sorry that the Oprah call happened, because I’m not. But I paid for it.”
Anita Shreve passed away in 2018.
Please join us in honoring these two newest members of the NH Literary Hall of Fame. Additions to The NH Literary Hall of Fame take place in tandem with the Biennial NH Literary Awards and the Peoples’ Choice Awards. The next inductees will be introduced in 2023.
