Professor's Poem Selected for Prestigious Anthology

James Allen Hall’s Darwin-Inspired Poem Explores Family and Science

A poem by James Allen Hall, director of the Washington College Rose O'Neill Literary House and associate professor of English and creative writing, has been chosen for inclusion in The Best American Poetry 2025. The highly-regarded annual anthology selects just 75 poems from the thousands published in literary journals across the United States each year. 

The featured poem, "Inheritance at Corresponding Periods of Life, at Corresponding Seasons of the Year, as Limited by Sex," was originally published in The Adroit Journal.  The title is directly inspired by Charles Darwin's The Descent of Man, and the poem itself "vectors two kinds of materials at each other: zoological statements about mating rituals meet, play off of, and contrast with facts about my parents' married life," explained Hall.  

For Hall, the selection is particularly meaningful as this year marks the final volume of the anthology, which has been in publication for 38 years. 

"It's an honor to be included, particularly because the series is ending with this volume," he said. "I remember discovering the 1990 volume as an undergraduate, just starting to study and write poetry, and that volume opened up my eyes and my aspirations about what a poem could be. It's surreal to be included in something that introduced me to my personal Pantheon of poets and literary journals. And I hope that perhaps this volume does the same thing for Washington's amazing student poets." 

"We are immensely proud of James for this outstanding and well-deserved recognition,” said Provost Kiho Kim. “This inclusion is not only a testament to their exceptional talent and dedication as a poet, but it also serves as a powerful example for our students. James's success shows what's possible in a literary career and should inspire us all to pursue our creative aspirations with passion and rigor." 

This is not the first time Hall's poem has been recognized. It was also selected for inclusion in the Pushcart Prize Anthology and Best of the Net, an online anthology that highlights exceptional work published in online literary magazines. Additionally, Hall was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship in Poetry earlier this year to work on his new collection of poems, Inheritance. 

 - Dominique Ellis Falcon