The life of billy collins

By:Carolina Juarez

Jobs Before Writing

Influences on His Writing

As a young boy he was influenced by the "contemporary" poets he was able to read, in the Poetry magazine. He looked up to poets like, Karl Shapiro, Howard Nemerov, & Reed Whittemore. Most importantly he wanted to be like Wallace Stevens, one of the first modernist poets.

In 1971 Collins began teaching at Lehman College of the City University of New York, where he became a distinguished professor of English. He also served as a writer- in- residence at Sarah Lawrence College.

"And then I suddenly came under th influence of, first of all, like Karl Shapiro and Howard Nemerov and Reed Whittemore and a lot of other contemporary poets that I was exposed to because for some complicated reason my father used to bring Poetry magazine home. And so I got to hear not just school voices, like William Cullen Bryant and John Greenleaf Whittier and all thes extremely dead guys, but the voice of living poets that rang with speech and sounded like talk. And that was my first exposure to I guess what modern poetry was." (Collins)

How Collins' Poetry was Received by the People

Collins poetry is well appreciated by everyone. He has been called " the most popular poet in America." His poetry includes much humor that the readers love.

More About Collins

Collins married Diane Olbright, an architect, on January 21, 1979. Although they do not have any kids, they still live a happy life with each other.

10 Poems by Billy Collins

Billy is Born

• On Turning Ten
• Forgetfulness
• Candle Hat
• Fishing on the Susquehanna in July
• Invention
• Snow Day
• Embrace
• I Ask You

William James Billy Collins was born on March 22, 1941 in Manhattan, New York City, New York. He was born as the only child of William Collins and Katherine Collins. His father was an electrician and his mother was a nurse.

Education

Collins Writing Style

Collins attended catholic school for much of his life. In college he received a B.A. from the College of the Holy Cross in 1963. Then he received a Ph.D from the University of California, Riverside, in 1971. His primary area of study was as a Romantic Poet.

Collins is known for is humor in poetry. He likes to make his readers laugh. " He often slips into quirky, tender or profound observation on the everyday, reading and writing and poetry itself," says Bruce Weber from New York Times

Bibliography

Collins Views About Writing

• "Study Guides, Lesson Plans, Homework Help, Answers & More - ENotes.com." Enotes.com. Enotes.com, n.d. Web. 15 Dec. 2014.
• "Guernica / A Magazine of Art & Politics." Guernica / A Magazine of Art & Politics. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Dec. 2014.
• "Billy Collins." Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation, n.d. Web. 16 Dec. 2014.
• POET: BILLY COLLINS - ALL POEMS OF BILLY COLLINS. "POET: BILLY COLLINS - ALL POEMS OF BILLY COLLINS." Poemhunter.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Dec. 2014.
• "Billy Collins." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 16 Dec. 2014.

Collins believes that at first it is hard to start a poem, but then as you start writing the rest comes easily. He believes that making something funny will lure the readers into reading the poem.

Awards

"The literary world is so full of pretension, and there’s such an enormous gap between how seriously poets take themselves and how widely they’re ignored by everybody else."

In 2005 Collins was the first annual recipient of the Mark Twain Prize for humor in Poetry. He also received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, from the New York Foundation for the Arts. Then in 1993, he received it from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation.

The Life of Billy Collins