Charles W. Pratt '52 will read from his latest book of poetry Still Here in the Kaplanoff Periodicals Room of the Class of 1945 Library on Wednesday, October 29th at 7:00 p.m.  A reception and book signing will follow the reading.

Charles W. Pratt, a 1952 graduate of the Academy, began teaching English at the Academy in 1966.  For more than 40 years, Pratt has also been the director of the George Bennett Fellowship Program, the Phillips Exeter writer-in-residency program.

For the past 25 years, Charles and his wife Joan, have owned and operated Apple Annie's, a small apple orchard in Brentwood, NH.  His first collection of poems, In the Orchard was selected as an American Library Association Notable Book for 1986.  Still Here (Finishing Line Press, 2008) is the winner of the 2007 Finishing Line Press Open Chapbook Competition and his second collection of poetry.  Scott Russell Sanders, author of A Private History of Awe and the 1974-75 Bennett Fellow says of Pratt's work: "The lines of these poems are as cleanly pruned and thickly budded as the limbs of a well-tended orchard.  And like an orchard, Pratt's collection reveals the beauty that's possible when human design harmonizes with the flow of nature.  Pigs and porcupines, grand vistas and grandchildren, the year's wild cycle and the yearning of heart, all receive their due attention here, caught up in a poet's lucid and caring imagination."

Pratt is also one of the poets featured in the new PBS documentary Mondays at Skimmilk: 30 Years of Writers at Work.  Skimmilk Farm, an abandoned colonial-era dairy farm in southern New Hampshire, became the summer home of poet Jean Pedrick Kefferstan (1923-2006) and her family in the 1950s.  Mondays at Skimmilk tells the story of the Skimmilk Farm Writers Workshop, and the circle of support and friendship it has provided for writers since 1974.  Directed by Ken Browne, the half-hour documentary premiered on New Hampshire Public Television and is now airing on PBS stations around the country.  Pratt was also featured in a recent episode of WMUR's evening program New Hampshire Chronicle.

For additional information contact Jacquelyn H. Thomas, Academy Librarian at (603) 777-3328.