U.S. Poet Laureate Reads at Alma College
United States Poet Laureate and Pulitzer Prize winner Ted Kooser
will share his poetry during a public reading at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Oct.
10th in the Remick Heritage Center at Alma College.
No ticket is required. Admission is free and open to the public.
“This is a wonderful opportunity,” says Robert Vivian, Alma College
English associate professor and one of Kooser’s former students at the
University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Kooser’s writings are a “wonderful introduction” into the art of poetry, says Vivian.
“His poems are very accessible with artful simplicity yet layered with
heart, meaning and depth,” says Vivian. “He uses simple speech
that can blow you away with insight.”
In August 2004, Kooser was named U.S. Poet Laureate Consultant in
Poetry to the Library of Congress to serve a term from October 2004
through May 2005. In April 2005, Kooser was appointed to serve a second
term as Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry. During that same week,
Kooser received the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for his book Delights and Shadows (2004).
“He is a down-to-earth, genuine poet,” says Vivian. “His poems
tend to tell stories about very ordinary people with extraordinary
depth and soul.”
The author of 11 full-length collections of poetry, Kooser has received
many other honors, including two National Endowment for the Arts
fellowships in poetry, a Pushcart Prize, the Nebraska Book Awards for
Poetry and Nonfiction, the Stanley Kunitz Prize from Columbia, and the
Boatwright Prize from Shenandoah.
Kooser has read his poetry for The Academy of American Poets in New
York City as well as for many college and university audiences,
including those of the University of California at Berkeley, Cornell at
Ithaca, Case Western Reserve at Cleveland, and Wesleyan University in
Connecticut. He has conducted writing workshops in connection with many
of these readings.
Born in Ames, Iowa, in 1939, Kooser received a bachelor of arts degree
from Iowa State and a master of arts degree in English from the
University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He currently teaches as a visiting
professor in the English department at the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln.
Posted: Mon, October 1st, 2007 at 8:18AM
