It’s the birthday of Charles Simic (b. 1938), one of today’s Great Living Poets of surrealist ilk (though he does grim realism as well), whose poetry “removes the safety nets from the everyday.” Simic was born in Belgrade, Yugoslavia (now Serbia) and spent his childhood fleeing the violence of WWII; he has said that “My [...]
It’s the birthday of Ted Kooser (b. 1939), the first Great Plains poet to be named U.S. poet laureate (2004-2006). Kooser’s poetry “celebrates the quotidian and captures a vanishing way of life” (poetryfoundation.org). (Word of the day: quotidian, a word that refers to the everyday or ordinary while itself being one of the snazzier words [...]
It’s the birthday of Canadian-born poet Mark Strand (1934-2014), who won a Pulitzer for his collection Blizzard of One (1998) and has been called “one of America’s most hauntingly meditative poets” (William Graimes, “Mark Strand, 80, Dies; Pulitzer-Winning Poet Laureate,” New York Times, Nov. 29, 2014). Strand was born on Prince Edward Island in Canada [...]
It’s the birthday of poet Richard Wilbur (1921-2017, #nicelonglife), who throughout his illustrious career was praised for his technical virtuosity and courtly style but was also at times criticized for his technical virtuosity and courtly style. So if you liked Sylvia Plath and Robert Lowell, you maybe didn’t like Richard Wilbur. Wilbur was born in [...]
It’s the birthday of Louis Untermeyer (1885-1977), a poet, editor, and highly popular speaker best known as an anthologist who had a tremendous influence over poetry in the 20th century, introducing students to a wide variety of American poets and promoting the idea that poetry is accessible, not elitist. Untermeyer was born in New York, [...]
It’s the birthday of poet, memoirist, and essayist Donald Hall (1928-2018), U.S. poet laureate from 2006-2007 and one of the most important poets of his generation. He’s best known as a rural poet who focused on the natural world and used simple language that nonetheless often had a surrealistic effect. Hall was born and raised [...]
It’s the birthday of poet Rita Dove (b. 1952), who in 1993 at age 40 became the youngest person ever to serve as U.S. Poet Laureate, and the first African American as well (if you don’t count Gwendolyn Brooks, who was Consultant in Poetry before they added the Laureate part). Dove was born in Akron, [...]