Children's book author was a voice for racial and social justice“I have now declared myself Poet Laureate of the Salmon Hole just below the Winooski Dam. I’m thinking about declaring myself music director as well. Perhaps I put up a plaque.”— Laban Hill, March 20, 2016 Laban Hill, the father, author, performer, friend; the teacher, brother, colleague; the son, neighbor, citizen, poet and person, died in his home on February 15, 2021, in Winooski, Vt., at age 60. He is remembered dearly by his family, daughters Natalie and Ella, ex-wife Elise Whittemore, sister Susan Pfau and mother Kay Colby. Laban was a first and foremost a storyteller. Here’s a story about Laban. He grew up in Memphis, Tenn., in the 1960s. After graduation, Laban moved to New York and enrolled at NYU, where he connected to the St. Mark's Poetry Project and began his lifelong love of poetry. Over the next decade he pursued his education at Baruch College and later at Columbia University, where he earned an MFA in poetry. In his early twenties, Laban worked as a sales assistant at the New Yorker, where he met Elise Whittemore, whom he later married. Laban soon entered publishing, working at several houses including Scholastic. Intrigued by the Choose Your Own Adventure series, he phoned the editor to propose writing one, only to find out they did not hire authors who lived in New York. As if it were an adventure to be replotted, Laban and Elise had their first daughter, Natalie, in Brooklyn, and shortly thereafter they moved to Vermont. He returned to the editor with his new Vermont bona fides and was hired for many books in the Choose Your Own Adventure series. After his second daughter, Ella, was born, Laban created his own series, The Extreme Sports Mysteries, in which both Natalie and Ella were featured as characters. In Vermont, Laban wrote over 30 books, including the National Book Award finalist Harlem Stomp!, the Caldecott Honor awardee Dave the Potter, America Dreaming and When the Beat Was Born. Beyond writing, Laban had a passion for the oral tradition of storytelling and how it allowed for wild twists of extemporaneous invention and humor. With his daughters in tow, Laban took his Jack Tales to schools, coffee shops, libraries and ski lodges across Vermont. In these tales Jack uses his cleverness and bravado to outwit giants, magical creatures and even death. As he laid out the heroic and…
Children's book author was a voice for racial and social justice“I have now declared myself Poet Laureate of the Salmon Hole just below the Winooski Dam. I’m thinking about declaring myself music director as well. Perhaps I put up a plaque.”— Laban Hill, March 20, 2016 Laban Hill, the father, author, performer, friend; the teacher, brother, colleague; the son, neighbor, citizen, poet and person, died in his home on February 15, 2021, in Winooski, Vt., at age 60. He is remembered dearly by his family, daughters Natalie and Ella, ex-wife Elise Whittemore, sister Susan Pfau and mother Kay Colby. Laban was a first and foremost a storyteller. Here’s a story about Laban. He grew up in Memphis, Tenn., in the 1960s. After graduation, Laban moved to New York and enrolled at NYU, where he connected to the St. Mark's Poetry Project and began his lifelong love of poetry. Over the next decade he pursued his education at Baruch College and later at Columbia University, where he earned an MFA in poetry. In his early twenties, Laban worked as a sales assistant at the New Yorker, where he met Elise Whittemore, whom he later married. Laban soon entered publishing, working at several houses including Scholastic. Intrigued by the Choose Your Own Adventure series, he phoned the editor to propose writing one, only to find out they did not hire authors who lived in New York. As if it were an adventure to be replotted, Laban and Elise had their first daughter, Natalie, in Brooklyn, and shortly thereafter they moved to Vermont. He returned to the editor with his new Vermont bona fides and was hired for many books in the Choose Your Own Adventure series. After his second daughter, Ella, was born, Laban created his own series, The Extreme Sports Mysteries, in which both Natalie and Ella were featured as characters. In Vermont, Laban wrote over 30 books, including the National Book Award finalist Harlem Stomp!, the Caldecott Honor awardee Dave the Potter, America Dreaming and When the Beat Was Born. Beyond writing, Laban had a passion for the oral tradition of storytelling and how it allowed for wild twists of extemporaneous invention and humor. With his daughters in tow, Laban took his Jack Tales to schools, coffee shops, libraries and ski lodges across Vermont. In these tales Jack uses his cleverness and bravado to outwit giants, magical creatures and even death. As he laid out the heroic and…