Billy Collins

William A. ( "Billy" ) Collins ( born March 22, 1941 in New York City ) is an American writer. He lives in New York City.

Education and work

Collins was born as the son of parents William and Katherine Collins, 1941. He studied at the College of the Holy Cross and the University of California, Riverside. Later he was a Distinguished Professor of English at Lehman College of the City University of New York, where he taught from 1968 to 2001. Recently, he taught at Sarah Lawrence College, where he worked as a guest author.

Work

Billy Collins ' poetry appears lighter than that of other poets, because his poems are written in a while skeptical, yet humorous tone. Collins uses a catchy language to pull the reader into his world of poetry. His poems usually begin with a serene restlessness. He discovers her life from the sidelines, and his readers. So he strolls amused by the seemingly Familiar to gain from the material of everyday life gems. Its strengths: the joke, the sensitivity of vision, the clarity, the desire of the researcher after the discovery of mysteries.

His breakthrough in the general public, it came in the early nineties. While a poem in the important lyric yearbook " The Best American Poetry" was published in 1992, but the popularity of Billy Collins was limited more to the poetry scene.

Four volumes of poetry were available at the time in which the poetics of Collins had read already. His manuscript to the tape " Questions About Angels" was selected to appear as a book in the prestigious National Poetry Series. Garrison Keillor, a radio host, Billy Collins asked, his poems on his show " Prairie Home Companion " to read. Collins became popular.

In 2000 jockeyed two publishers to Collins - in the poetry of extraordinary incident. The New York Times reported on the dispute on page one. In June 2001, he was elected to the U.S. Poet Laureate and had for two years in a sense held the highest office of poetry, which has to forgive his home. He stands in line with poets such as Mark beach, Joseph Brodsky, Rita Dove and Robert Hass.

Collins is located in the center of the movement that wants to arouse interest in the poetry again. On September 6, 2002, he contributed his poem " The Names " before at a special session of Congress, which was held for the victims of the attacks of 11 September 2001 in memory. As the " Poet Laureate " Collins published under the title "Poetry 180 " a collection of 180 poems (one for each day of a typical school year ). The first poem, "Introduction to Poetry", encouraged to enjoy the poetry, rather than just interpret and thus " the poem with a rope to a chair to tie / and herauszufoltern a confession out of him. "

Although Collins ' poetry is often compared with that of Robert Frost, his work is characterized more by a rejection of formal lyrical principles. For example, begins his poem " Sonnet " as follows: "All we need is fourteen lines, well, thirteen now" and goes on this way on; be " sonnet " has indeed fourteen verses, but it does not rhyme, and except for the last verse there is no iambic pentameter. With his mockery poem "Para Delle for Susan " he invented the poetic form of the para Delle as a parody of the Villanelle; the para- dent is symbolic of his rejection of formal poetry.

Awards

Collins has received numerous awards of the magazine " Poetry". In 1994 he was chosen by the magazine as "the poet of the Year". He was also a fellow of the National Endowment for the Arts, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation and the " New York Foundation for the Arts ".

For two years, from 2001 to 2003, was the reigning Poet Laureate Billy Collins of the United States. In his home state, he was as "Literary Lion " the public library honored by New York and selected for the New York State Poet 2004.

In 1997, he took a collection of thirty-three of his poems under the title "The Best Cigarette " on. The CD became a best seller. In 2005 the CD with a Creative Commons license has been re-released, which allows a free non- commercial distribution of the recording. Collins took on two of his poems for the audio version of Garrison Keillor's collection "Good Poems" ( 2002).

Comments on the work

Entertainment Weekly: "A Jerry Seinfeld poetry. "

John Updike: "Billy Collins writes lovely poems. .. Sure, gallant and always amazing. Serious as they first appear, they describe all those worlds that exist and gave and some more to it. "

Richard Alleva: " The most important thing that can be said about Collins is that he himself ascribes little significance as a poet, and in rebellious extent, he is a poet who would reject a more important status, even if he imposed upon him would. "

Bibliography

Volumes of poetry

• The Trouble With Poetry and Other Poems, (2005, ISBN 0-375-50382- X)
• Nine Horses (2002, ISBN 0-375-50381-1 )
• Sailing Alone Around the Room: New and Selected Poems (2001, ISBN 0-375-50380-3 )
• Picnic, Lightning (1998, ISBN 0-8229-4066-3 )
• The Art of Drowning (1995, ISBN 0-8229-3893-6 ), Which was a Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize finalist
• Questions About Angels (1991, ISBN 0-8229-4211-9 ), the winner (two years later ) of the National Poetry Series competition
• The Apple That Astonished Paris (1988, ISBN 1-55728-023-1 )
• Video Poems (1980 )
• Poker Face ( 1977)

Anthologies

German -language editions

• Shoveling snow with Buddha ( from the American by Ron Winkler, Erata Edition, Leipzig 2006)