Perhaps he has done more to demystify poetry for American readers than anyone, though without trivializing it. If you’ve been following American poetry for the past six or seven years, you already know that he was poet laureate (2001-2003), his latest collection is The Trouble with Poetry, and that, like the current poet laureate, he advocates accessible poetry over ‘difficult’ poetry. (Collins’s publishers have confirmed that it was at least six figures.) It’s not uncommon for three of his books to appear simultaneously on the Poetry Foundation’s bestseller list, and he shatters the cliche that poets must be poor in their own lifetimes his 2001 Sailing Alone Around the Room is rumored to have earned him a million-dollar advance. A member of the academy (though he may throw stones) he teaches in writing programs like CUNY and Columbia– – yet he is also read widely even by non-poets.
It’s earned him a rare spot between critical respect and wide appeal. The former poet laureate on attacking pretension, daring to be accessible, and i-poetry.īilly Collins is the class clown in the schoolhouse of American poetry.
0 kommentar(er)
