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Billy Collins
Poet; Former U.S. Poet Laureate
One of the most popular living poets in the United States, Billy Collins was born in New York City in 1941. Collins is the author of nine books of poetry, including She Was Just Seventeen (2006), The Trouble with Poetry and Other Poems (2005), Nine Horses (2002), and Sailing Alone Around the Room: New and Selected Poems (2001). His work appears regularly in such periodicals as Poetry, The New Yorker, The Paris Review, and Harper's Magazine, and has been featured in various textbooks and anthologies, including those for the Pushcart Prize and the annual Best American Poetry series. Between 2001 and 2004, Collins served two terms at the 11th Poet Laureate of the United States. In his home state, Collins has been recognized as a Literary Lion of the New York Public Library (1992) and selected as the New York State Poet for 2004. Other honors include fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Guggenheim Foundation, and the first annual Mark Twain Prize for Humor in Poetry. He is currently a Distinguished Professor of English at Lehman College in the Bronx, where has taught for over thirty years.
Ideas recorded at the 2007 Aspen Ideas Festival on: 7/4/07
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One’s faith can survive a split between theology and iconography.
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The poet is just as responsible for a small audience.
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Coleridge’s “Conversation” poems inspire much of Collins’ work.
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Asking, what does the poem mean? kills the poem, Collins says.
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Each poem is a journey, and the reader is meant to come along.
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Getting writers to talk about their writing is harder than you think.
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Billy Collins, on his fraught relationship with his teachers.
Walking down the street is like a night at the opera, Collins says.
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When you’re not writing, Billy Collins says, there’s fear that you will never write again.
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Collins says he hopes he’s brought people back to poetry.