Meredith Hall
At the age of forty-four, Meredith Hall graduated from Bowdoin College. She wrote her first essay, “Killing Chickens," in 2002. Two years later, she won the $50,000 Gift of Freedom Award from A Room of Her Own Foundation, which gave her the financial freedom to devote time to Without a Map, her first book. Her other honors include a Pushcart Prize and notable essay recognition in Best American Essays; she was also a finalist for the Rona Jaffe Award. Hall’s work has appeared in the New York Times, Creative Nonfiction, The Southern Review, Five Points, Prairie Schooner, and several anthologies. She teaches writing at the University of New Hampshire and lives in Maine.
“The world waits for you with all its beauty, but also its frights and its pain.”
Meredith Hall
“I didn't make this plan. I just wake up sometimes and want to crawl out of my life.”
Meredith Hall
“The past lies beneath the surface, intransigent truth. Remembered or not, what we say and do remains, always.”
Meredith Hall
“The lights come on and my future returns in the glare.”
Meredith Hall
“I have lived this life, and no matter what others may decide about it, I must claim each decision as mine. I have caused harm, failed in the expectations and obligations of love. I have loved well. What I do each day is carried within me until I die. ”
Meredith Hall