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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.

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Alma is one of seven Michigan colleges and universities to hold membership in the Omicron Delta Kappa Society, the national leadership society that recognizes and encourages superior scholarship, leadership and exemplary character. The College also has 19 other national departmental honor societies.

 

Student Profile

Melissa Boguslawski

Melissa Boguslawski
Graduation: 2008
Major: Exercise Health Science, Chemistry
From: Madison Heights, Michigan
Interests: Sports, Heritage

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