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William “Billy” Collins (born 22 March 1941) is an American poet. He 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.

Biography

Collins was born in New York City to William and Katherine Collins. (: He attended Archbishop Stepinac High School in White Plains and graduated with a bachelor's degree from the College of the Holy Cross in 1963 and received his M.A. and Ph.D in English from the University of California, Riverside. He was a student of Victorian Scholar and poet Robert Peters at Riverside. 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. Additionally, he is a founding Advisory Board member of the CUNY Institute for Irish-American Studies at Lehman College. He also has taught and served as a visiting writer at Sarah Lawrence College in Yonkers, New York. Collins was named U.S. Poet Laureate in 2001 and held the title until 2003. Collins served as Poet Laureate for the State of New York from 2004 until 2006.

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 (ISBN 0-9658873-0-8), 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 (2002, ISBN 0-670-03126-7). In 2005, he recorded "Billy Collins Live: A Performance at the Peter Norton Symphony Space" in New York City. Collins was introduced by actor Bill Murray.

Over the years, Poetry 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.

Bibliography

Ballistics: Poems, (2008, ISBN 1-400-06491-0)
The Trouble With Poetry and Other Poems, (2005, ISBN 0-375-50382-X)
Nine Horses (2002, ISBN 0-375-50381-1), named a notable book of the year by the New York Times Book Review
Sailing Alone Around the Room: New and Selected Poems (2001, ISBN 0-375-50380-3), named a notable book of the year by the New York Times Book Review
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)
Pokerface (1977)

External links

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 ==Biography==
-Collins was born in New York City to William and Katherine Collins. He attended Archbishop Stepinac High School in White Plains and graduated with a bachelor's degree from the [[College of the Holy Cross]] in 1963 and received his M.A. and Ph.D in English from the [[University of California, Riverside]]. He was a student of Victorian Scholar and poet [[Robert Peters]] at Riverside.
+Collins was born in New York City to William and Katherine Collins. (: He attended Archbishop Stepinac High School in White Plains and graduated with a bachelor's degree from the [[College of the Holy Cross]] in 1963 and received his M.A. and Ph.D in English from the [[University of California, Riverside]]. He was a student of Victorian Scholar and poet [[Robert Peters]] at Riverside.
 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. Additionally, he is a founding Advisory Board member of the [[CUNY]] Institute for Irish-American Studies at Lehman College. He also has taught and served as a visiting writer at [[Sarah Lawrence College]] in [[Yonkers, New York]]. Collins was named U.S. Poet Laureate in 2001 and held the title until 2003.  Collins served as Poet Laureate for the State of New York from 2004 until 2006.