Title: Billy Collins

American Poet ( 1941 - ) Source: Contemporary Authors Online. Detroit: Gale, 2010. From Literature Resource Center. Document Type: Biography Full Text: COPYRIGHT 2012 Gale, Cengage Learning

Updated:12/16/2010 Table of Contents:AwardsCareerFurther Readings About the AuthorPersonal InformationSidelightsWritings by the Author PERSONAL INFORMATION: Born March 22, 1941, in New York, NY; son of William S. (an electrician) and Katherine M. (a nurse) Collins; married, January 21, 1979; wife's name Diane (an architect). Education: College of the Holy Cross, B.A., 1963; University of California, Riverside, Ph.D., 1971. Avocational Interests: Jazz music. Addresses: Home: Somers, NY. Agent: Chris Calhoun, Sterling Lord Literistic, 65 Bleecker St., New York, NY 10012. CAREER: Lehman College, City University of New York, Bronx, NY, professor of English, beginning 1971; writer-in-residence at Sarah Lawrence College; also taught at served as Columbia University. Literary Lion of the New York Public Library; U.S. Poet Laureate, 2001-03; New York State Poet Laureate, 2004-06. Performs poetry readings; has appeared on National Public Radio. AWARDS: Poetry fellow, New York Foundation for the Arts, National Endowment for the Arts, and Guggenheim Foundation; Bess Hokin Award, Oscar Blumenthal Award, and Levinson Prize, all from Poetry; appointed Literary Lion by New York Public Library; winner of National Poetry Series competition, 1990, for manuscript "Questions about Angels"; named the 11th U.S. Poet Laureate, 2001; Mark Twain Award for humorous poetry, Poetry Foundation, 2004.

WORKS: WRITINGS: POETRY (EXCEPT AS NOTED)

Pokerface, limited edition, Kenmore, 1977. Video Poems, Applezaba (Long Beach, CA), 1980. The Apple That Astonished Paris, University of Arkansas Press (Fayetteville, AR), 1988. Questions about Angels: Poems, Morrow (New York, NY), 1991. The Art of Drowning, University of Pittsburgh Press (Pittsburgh, PA), 1995. Picnic, Lightning, University of Pittsburgh Press (Pittsburgh, PA), 1998. Taking Off Emily Dickinson's Clothes, Picador (London, England), 2000. The Eye of the Poet: Six Views of the Art and Craft of Poetry, edited by David Citino, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2001. Sailing Alone around the Room: New and Selected Poems, Random House (New York, NY), 2001. Nine Horses: Poems, Random House (New York, NY), 2002. (Editor and author of introduction) Poetry 180: A Turning Back to Poetry, Random House Trade Paperbacks (New York, NY), 2003. Daddy's Little Boy (picture book), illustrated by Maggie Kneen, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2004. (Editor and author of introduction) 180 More: Extraordinary Poems for Every Day, Random House Trade Paperbacks (New York, NY), 2005. The Trouble with Poetry and Other Poems, Random House (New York, NY), 2005. Design = Diseno, translated by Maria Vargas, illustrated by Carlos Ayress Moreno, Parallel Editions (Tuscaloosa, AL), 2005. (Author of foreword) Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass, Signet Classics (New York, NY), 2005. She Was Just Seventeen, Modern Haiku Press (Lincoln, IL), 2006. Ballistics: Poems, Random House (New York, NY), 2008. (Editor) Bright Wings: An Illustrated Anthology of Poems about Birds, illustrated by David Allen Sibley, Columbia University Press (New York, NY), 2010.

Contributor of poetry to university publications and journals, including Flying Faucet Review and Oink. The Best Cigarette, CD recording of Collins's poems, read by the author, 1997. Instrumental in establishing and editing the Web site Poetry 180: A Poem a Day for American High Schools.

Sidelights A former U.S. Poet Laureate and New York State Poet Laureate, Billy Collins writes poetry that "displays a deep affection for the details of middle-class American life," according to Arlo Haskell on the Web site Littoral: The Journal of the Key West Literary Seminar. "His landscapes are marked by suburban parks, dogs, and country houses, and inhabited by a narrator whose idylls of contentment and quiet adventure at first appear utterly familiar. But just as these reveries come into view, they are subverted by mischievous impulses that shift the reader, as Collins says here, 'from the familiar to the strange, from coziness to disorientation.'" Guernica Web site contributor Joel Whitney dubbed Collins "the class clown in the schoolhouse of American poetry." Whitney explained that Collins's very readable and accessible poetry has "earned him a rare spot between critical respect and wide appeal." It is not unusual for Collins to have more than one book on the best-seller list of the Poetry Foundation, nor is it strange to find his books among the collections of those who do not normally read poetry. Whitney further noted that Collins "shatters the cliche that poets must be poor in their own lifetimes." His best-selling collection Sailing Alone around the Room: New and Selected Poems was reported to have earned the poet an advance in the high six figures. Collins has in fact earned the respect of a diverse audience, from high school students to poets such as Edward Hirsch and Richard Howard. With fans such as John Updike and National Public Radio listeners, Collins has demonstrated a skill for "building a rare bridge of admiration for his work between [the] serious literary fold and poetry novitiates," observed Bruce Weber in a December 1999 New York Times article. Collins gives commanding poetry readings, according to Weber, who complimented the poet's ability to hold the interest of a high school crowd. The poet "read[s] in a voice that leavens gravitas with a hint of mischief," described Weber, who declared: "It can be argued that with his books selling briskly and his readings packing them in, Mr. Collins is the most popular poet in America." Born in 1941 in New York City, Collins was the only child of parents who were both thirty-nine at the time. He had what he termed to Whitney a "fairly happy" childhood. "That kind of confirmed my sense of being the center of the universe, which I guess every child feels--children and poets both tend to feel," Collins told Whitney. He began writing poetry as a youth, simple observational poems that had developed into darker and more "gothic" works in adolescence. Some of his early influences included Karl Shapiro, Howard Nemerov, and Reed Whittemore. In the mid-1950s he also fell under the influence of the Beat poets for a time, and by college and graduate school Wallace Stevens had become a major influence and inspiration. Collins's first small

collection, Pokerface, appeared in 1977, and his first collection to earn critical attention was the 1988 work The Apple That Astonished Paris. The poetry in Questions about Angels: Poems won Collins the 1990 National Poetry Series competition. Following this honor, the work was published by Morrow. In a review of the volume, a Publishers Weekly critic applauded the poet's "strange and wonderful" images but believed that his poems--which are often "constricted by the novelty of a unifying metaphor"--"rarely induce an emotional reaction." In contrast, reviewers of Collins's subsequent work praised his ability to connect with readers. Assessing Picnic, Lightning, Booklist contributor Donna Seaman wrote: "The warmth of his voice emanates from his instinct for pleasure and his propensity toward humor." Discussing Picnic, Lightning and its predecessor, The Art of Drowning, Poetry magazine contributor John Taylor lauded Collins's skill and style, declaring: "Collins helps us feel the mystery of being alive." The poet has "a charming mixture of irony, wit, musing, and tenderness for the everyday," according to Taylor, who added that "a funny-sad ambience characterizes his best work. ... Rarely has anyone written poems that appear so transparent on the surface yet become so ambiguous, thought-provoking, or simply wise once the reader has peered into the depths." Collins--who, as a poet, received a nearly unprecedented six-figure deal from Random House for his next three books--experienced a roadblock in the delivery of Sailing Alone around the Room. In a roundabout way, Collins's popularity impeded the release of the 2000 publication. Due to the continued economic profitability of the poetry collections that Collins released through University of Pittsburgh Press--titles that include The Art of Drowning and Picnic, Lightning--the University of Pittsburgh Press was extremely resistant to granting Random House the rights to the "selected poems" it was requesting to include in Sailing Alone around the Room. The battle between Random House and the University of Pittsburgh Press was recognized in the New York Timesby Weber, who was amazed that the university press was uncharacteristically and "unduly stand[ing] in the way of an author's success--and wishes." Weber's article quoted poetry editor and poet Richard Howard, who said of Collins: "He has a remarkably American voice ... that one recognizes immediately as being of the moment and yet has real validity besides, reaching very far into what verse can do." Collins described himself to Weber as "reader conscious": "I have one reader in mind, someone who is in the room with me, and who I'm talking to, and I want to make sure I don't talk too fast, or too glibly. Usually I try to create a hospitable tone at the beginning of a poem. Stepping from the title to the first lines is like stepping into a canoe. A lot of things can go wrong." Collins further related to Weber: "I think my work has to do with a sense that we are attempting, all the time, to create a logical,

rational path through the day. To the left and right there are an amazing set of distractions that we usually can't afford to follow. But the poet is willing to stop anywhere." In the end, Collins was able to fulfill the Random House contract, and Sailing Alone around the Room reached the bookstores at about the same time that Collins was named U.S. Poet Laureate. The volume contains almost one hundred verses, a score of which were never before published. Reviewing this collection in Library Journal, Tim Gavin noted: "Collins will tackle any topic." Thus the book deals with subjects from the lofty to the commonplace, from Aristotle to school snow days. The result, Gavin felt, is "accessible but not trite, comical but not laughable." Remarking on Collins's light and sometimes humorous approach, Booklist contributor Donna Seaman commented that "what appears to be whimsy is, in fact, a graceful and ongoing inquiry into the nature of being." A Publishers Weekly reviewer observed that Collins's poems are often narrated "by a speaker whose genial, highly literate analogue of earnestness perfectly produces inchoate quotidian restlessness matched by fear-based appreciation of the mundane." Collins's next work of poetry, Nine Horses: Poems, continues in the same vein of deceptive simplicity and humor masking depth. Here the poet deals with themes from contemplation to travel. Reviewing Nine Horses for Booklist, Seaman dubbed Collins a "connoisseur of muted moments and a coiner of whimsical yet philosophical revelations." The Trouble with Poetry and Other Poems is somewhat more reflective in tone, as Collins entered his sixties. Louis McKee, writing for Library Journal, noted that the poet here looks at "his aesthetics, on the seemingly casual, natural, sure steps that brought about his poems." For McKee this offering is "rich and mischievous." Booklist reviewer Seaman also had praise for this collection, writing that the poet "is breathtaking in his appreciation of the earth's beauty and the precious daily routines that define life." Likewise, a Publishers Weekly contributor praised Collins for his "light touch, his self-deprecating pathos and his unerring sense of his audience" in poems such as "In the Moment," "I Ask You," and "The Lanyard." Ballistics: Poems is Collins's 2008 collection, and one that "again shows the deft, often self-mocking touch that has made him one of America's bestselling poets," according to a Publishers Weekly reviewer. Here he sets poems in Vermont and in France and deals with topics from the onset of old age to living each day fully. His trademark tone is "humorous and serious at once," noted the Publishers Weekly contributor. Library Journal reviewer Karla Huston similarly stated: "Collins takes aim with wit and irony to attend the ordinary as well as the extraordinary." Reviewing Ballistics for School Library Journal, Robert Saunderson observed:

"Accessibility is the word that comes immediately to mind when considering Billy Collins's poetry." Saunderson added that this gathering of poems "will surely add to [Collins's] popularity and praise." New York Times reviewer Janet Maslin wrote that Ballistics "glows with the confidence of a writer who has been there, done that and been made fully aware of his work's power to delight." Writing for Booklist, Seaman got to the heart of the matter, terming Collins a "jester and a double agent ... [whose] seductive poems are decoys drawing us into deep waters." In addition to writing critically acclaimed and popular collections, Collins has served as an editor on numerous works. His Poetry 180: A Turning Back to Poetry gathers poems that are short and easily understood but do not lack for depth. It was intended as an appropriate text for high school students and contains a range of topic and moods from elegiac to humorous to sad. Reviewing the collection for Kliatt, James Beschta wrote: "The authors are top notch, the scope of the work is universal." This book led to Collins's collaboration with the Library of Congress in developing the Web site Poetry 180: A Poem a Day for American High Schools, an online collection of poetry that can be accessed by schools and individuals. A School Library Journal reviewer felt that "anyone who wants to share more poetry with high school students will appreciate this creation." Collins additionally served as editor for the 2009 collection of ornithological verses, Bright Wings: An Illustrated Anthology of Poems about Birds, which "will please anyone who has heard a birdsong and tried to understand it," observed Library Journal reviewer McKee. Speaking with Meridian Web site contributor Nabil Rahman, Collins offered advice to aspiring poets: "Read, read, and read. Read as many poets as you can until you find one (or more) who make you jealous. Then try to imitate his or her voice. One of the paradoxes of the writing life is that the only way to originality is through imitation. If you don't imitate others, you will sound clichd and flat. You find your voice by trying on the voices of others. Almost every poet can teach you something about writing." FURTHER READINGS: FURTHER READINGS ABOUT THE AUTHOR: PERIODICALS

American Libraries, August, 2001, "Billy Collins Named U.S. Poet Laureate," p. 13. Birder's World, December, 2009, Matt Mendenhall, review of Bright Wings: An Illustrated Anthology of Poems about Birds, p. 41.

Booklist, March 1, 1998, Donna Seaman, review of Picnic, Lightning, p. 1086; November 1, 1998, review of Picnic, Lightning, p. 483; August, 2001, Donna Seaman, review of Sailing Alone around the Room: New and Selected Poems, p. 2078; December 1, 2002, Donna Seaman, review of Nine Horses: Poems, p. 642; September 15, 2005, Donna Seaman, review of The Trouble with Poetry and Other Poems, p. 20; August 1, 2008, Donna Seaman, review of Ballistics: Poems, p. 26. Entertainment Weekly, November 23, 2005, Thom Geier, review of The Trouble with Poetry and Other Poems. Guardian (London, England), April 12, 2003, Jeremy Noel Tod, review of Nine Horses. Kliatt, July, 2003, James Beschta, review of Poetry 180: A Turning Back to Poetry, p. 36; January 1, 2004, Daniel Levinson, review of Nine Horses, p. 26. Library Journal, June 15, 1991, review of Questions about Angels: Poems, p. 81; September 1, 2001, Tim Gavin, review of Sailing Alone around the Room, p. 184; October 15, 2005, Louis McKee, review of The Trouble with Poetry and Other Poems, p. 60; August 1, 2008, Karla Huston, review of Ballistics, p. 89; January 1, 2010, Louis McKee, review of Bright Wings, p. 110. NEA Today, September, 2002, review of Poetry 180, p. 52. New York Times, December 19, 1999, Bruce Weber, "On Literary Bridge, Poet Hits a Roadblock"; October 1, 2008, Janet Maslin, review of Ballistics, p. E8. New York Times Book Review, October 27, 2002, review of Nine Horses, p. 26. Poetry, January, 1989, review of The Apple That Astonished Paris, p. 232; February, 1992, review of Questions about Angels, p. 282; February, 2000, John Taylor, review of The Art of Drowning, p. 273. Publishers Weekly, May 17, 1991, review of Questions about Angels, p. 59; June 18, 2001, review of Sailing Alone around the Room, p. 78; August 15, 2005, review of The Trouble with Poetry and Other Poems, p. 34; July 21, 2008, review ofBallistics, p. 144. School Library Journal, October, 2003, review of Poetry 180, p. 74; April, 2004, "Poetry 180: A Poem a Day for American High Schools," p. 64; June, 2004, Rachel G. Payne, review of Daddy's Little Boy, p. 125; October, 2008, Robert Saunderson, review of Ballistics, p. 178. Techniques, March, 2002, review of Poetry 180, p. 10. World Literature Today, April, 2003, William Pratt, review of Nine Horses.

ONLINE

Academy of American Poets Web site, http://www.poets.org/ (February 8, 2010), "Billy Collins."

Associated Content, http://www.associatedcontent.com/ (February 8, 2010), Allan Heller, review of The Trouble with Poetry and Other Poems. Billy Collins Home Page, http://www.billy-collins.com (February 8, 2010). CNN.com, http://www.cnn.com/ (June 22, 2001). "New U.S. Poet Laureate Named." Coldfront, http://reviews.coldfrontmag.com/ (October 27, 2008), John Deming, review of Ballistics. Guernica, http://www.guernicamag.com/ (June 1, 2006), Joel Whitney, "A Brisk Walk: An Interview with Billy Collins." Littoral: The Journal of the Key West Literary Seminar, http://www.kwls.org/ (August 20, 2009), Arlo Haskell, "The Pleasures of Disorientation: A Conversation with Billy Collins." Meridian, http://media.www.lcmeridian.com/ (December 1, 2008), Nabil Rahman, "Poetry Matters: Q&A with Billy Collins." Powells.com, http://www.powells.com/ (January 14, 2004), Dave Weich, "Author Interviews: Billy Collins, Bringing Poetry to the Public." Tower Poetry, http://www.towerpoetry.org.uk/ (September 1, 2009), Jane Holland, review of Ballistics.*

Source Citation "Billy Collins." Contemporary Authors Online. Detroit: Gale, 2010. Literature Resource Center. Web. 3 Apr. 2012. Document URL http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CH1000120669&v=2.1&u=phoe84216 &it=r&p=LitRC&sw=w Gale Document Number: GALE|H1000120669