Billy collins famous poems
- •
Billy Collins
His full name is William James Collins, known as Billy Collins, born in New York City to William and Katherine Collins. His dad died while he was very young. Billy was their only child; his mother quit nursing to raise him. Katherine was one person who shared her love for words with Billy and influenced his career and interests. He went to school at Archbishop Stepinac High School. Afterward, he went to the College of the Holy Cross for a bachelor degree in English. Continuing his studies, he attended the University of California, Riverside and got his M.A. and Ph.D. (English) studying romantic poetry.
In 1969, he was an assistant professor, at Lehman College of the City University of New York, teaching literature and composition. During his free time, poems were being written. Later, becoming the Distinguished Professor at Lehman College. On January 21, 1979, he married Diane Olbright, an architect, and they settled in Westchester County together. Jokingly, the two compare the life of the poems he writes versus how long the buildings she designs last.
He has be
- •
Collins, Billy
Personal
Born March 22, 1941, in New York, NY; son of William S. (an electrician) and Katherine M. (a nurse) Collins; married; wife's name, Diane (an architect), January 21, 1979. Education: College of the Holy Cross, B.A., 1963; University of California, Riverside, Ph.D. (romantic poetry), 1971. Hobbies and other interests: Jazz music.
Addresses
Home— Somers, NY. Agent— Chris Calhoun, Sterling Lord Literistic, 65 Bleeker St., New York, NY 10012.
Career
Lehman College, City University of New York, professor of English, beginning 1971. Writer-in-residence at Sarah Lawrence College. Performs poetry readings; has appeared on National Public Radio.
Awards, Honors
Poetry fellow, New York Foundation for the Arts, National Endowment for the Arts, and Guggenheim Foundation; Bess Hokin Award, Oscar Blumenthal Award, and Levinson Prize, all from Poetry; appointed "Literary Lion" by New York Public Library; winner of National Poetry Series competition, 1990, for "Questions about Angels"; named eleventh U.S. poet laureate, 2001-03; Mark Twain Award for humoro
- •
When Billy Collins tells his New York City friends that he moved to Winter Park, Florida, they give him looks. “Florida has a very strong stigma right now,” Collins, a former Poet Laureate of both the U.S. and New York State, said the other day. “Ron DeSantis has reached a new level of trespass and overstepping.” He went on, “But I don’t wake up in the morning and think about the governor and what college boards he’s changing or what books he’s banning.”
It was the kind of warm afternoon that makes winter-weary New Yorkers jealous. Collins, a Queens native, was in the driveway of his banana-pudding-yellow house. He strolled onto a brick street leading down to a lake.
“I wanted to live in America, and Florida is America,” he said. He misses the Grand Central Oyster Bar (he lived in Westchester for years) and being able to attend as many readings and jazz concerts as he used to. But he appreciates feeling liberated from the constant tug of cultural obligations.
“I’m in Florida but not of Florida,” he likes to say of the state where “woke goes to die.”
Collins is a lean eighty-on
Copyright ©cafebee.pages.dev 2025