William A. ("Billy") Collins (born March 22, 1941) is an American poet who served two terms as the Poet Laureate of the United States, from 2001 to 2003. 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. Billy Collins was born in New York City in 1941 to William and Katherine Collins. He graduated with a bachelor's degree from the College of the Holy Cross in 1963 and received his doctorate from the University of California, Riverside. Billy Collins is a distinguished professor of English at Lehman College in the Bronx, where he joined the faculty in 1968 and has taught for over thirty years. In addition, he has taught and served as a visiting writer at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York. As U.S. Poet Laureate, Collins read his poem "The Names" at a special joint session of the United States Congress on September 6, 2002, held to remember the victims of the 9/11 attacks. In 1997, he recorded The Best Cigarette, a collection of 34 of his poems that would become a bestseller. In 2005, the CD was re-released under a Creative Commons license, allowing free, non-commercial distribution of the recording. He also recorded two of his poems for the audio versions of Garrison Keillor's collection Good Poems. Over the years, Poetry magazine has awarded him several prizes in recognition of poems they publish. During the 1990s, Collins won five such prizes. The magazine also selected him as "Poet of the Year" in 1994. In 2005 Collins was the first annual recipient of the Mark Twain Prize for Humor in Poetry, bestowed by the Poetry Foundation (Poetry Magazine). He has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation in 1993, and the New York Foundation for the Arts.
Continue in Raymond Carver »»»
Page 1 of 1