BILLY COLLINS Biography - Famous Poets and dancers

 
 

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BILLY COLLINS
                                                                                         
Billy Collins, a current teacher at Lehman College, was born in 1941 and has         
lived in New York City since his birth. Collins has completed fellowships at the     
New York Foundation for the Arts, National Endowment for the Arts, and The           
Guggenheim Foundation. From day one, his talents as a writer shined through, as     
he was able to express his thoughts on paper well throughout grade school. Billy     
Collins doesn’t force meter or rhyme into his poems in order to draw the reader’s   
attention; instead he uses his witty descriptions and comedy. As quoted by           
Richard Alleva in his article of "A major minor poet": “The most important thing     
to say about Collins is that he is a deliberately minor poet, even a                 
rebelliously minor poet, a poet who would reject major status if it were thrust     
upon him.” (Alleva, Richard. "A Major Minor Poet") Billy Collins has excelled       
his way through poetry fairly easy with his light verse style poems.                 
                                                                                     
Billy Collins has been very successful in creating six published books and is       
featured around the country. His poetry is in many periodicals, and he does a       
lot of public reading in which he draws a large crowd. Collins has earned many       
awards for his incredible explanations through words. He won Best American           
Poetry twice for two of his books, once in 1992 and once in 1993. He won the         
Bess Hokin award in 1992, and finally, most recently was named US Poet Laureate     
in 2001. This award is one of the greatest, if not the greatest, awards received     
by a poet. Billy Collins has had no shortage of published books. The six             
currently published are: Nine Horses, Sailing Alone Around the room, Picnic         
Lightning, The Best Cigarette, The Art of Drowning, Questions About Angels, and     
The Apple that Astonished Paris. Collins continues to strive as an achieved poet     
as people continue to find his simplistic poetry great.