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Author photo. Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth/Charles Beckman

Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth/Charles Beckman

Billy Collins

Author of Sailing Alone around the Room: New and Selected Poems

Includes the names: Billy Collins, Billy Collins, ed. Billy Collins, editor Billy Collins, editor Billy Collins, Edited by Billy Collins

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Billy Collins has published six collections of poetry, including Questions About Angels and The Art of Drowning, Picnic, Lightning, his latest, sold more than 25,000 copies in its first year. He teaches at Lehman College of the City University of New York and at Sarah Lawrence College. He was named U.S. Poet Laureate in June 2000. (Bowker Author Biography) Billy Collins was born in New York City in 1941. He earned a BA from the College of the Holy Cross, and both an MA and PhD from the University of California-Riverside. Collins conducted summer poetry workshops at University College Galway and is the Poet in Residence at Burren College of Art in Ireland. He is also a professor of English at Lehman College (CUNY). In 1992, Collins was chosen to be the Literary Lion of the New York Public Library. He was named U.S. Poet Laureate in 2001 and held the title until 2003. Collins then served as Poet Laureate for the State of New York from 2004 until 2006. His poetry has appeared in anthologies, textbooks and periodicals including Poetry, The American Poetry Review, The American scholar, Harper's, The Paris Review and The New Yorker. He is the author of six books of poetry including "The Art of Drowning." His poems have also been selected to appear in The Best American Poetry of 1992, 1993 and 1997. His works have won various awards including the Bess Hokin Prize, the Frederick Bock Prize, the Oscar Blumenthal Prize and the Levinson Prize, all awarded by Poetry. He has received fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation. His collection of poems entitled Aimless Love made numerous best-seller lists in 2013. (Bowker Author Biography) — biography from Sailing Alone around the Room: New and Selected Poems… (more)
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Works by Billy Collins
Sailing Alone around the Room: New and Selected Poems 2,295 copies, 28 reviews
Nine Horses: Poems 1,114 copies, 13 reviews
The Trouble with Poetry and Other Poems 1,114 copies, 27 reviews
Picnic, Lightning 811 copies, 13 reviews
Poetry 180: A Turning Back to Poetry (Editor) 751 copies, 10 reviews
Aimless Love: New and Selected Poems 653 copies, 53 reviews
Questions about Angels: Poems 596 copies, 3 reviews
The Art of Drowning 593 copies, 6 reviews
Ballistics: Poems 588 copies, 12 reviews
Horoscopes for the Dead: Poems 444 copies, 13 reviews
180 More: Extraordinary Poems for Every Day 356 copies, 9 reviews
The Rain in Portugal: Poems 289 copies, 10 reviews
The Apple That Astonished Paris: Poems by Billy Collins 266 copies, 3 reviews
The Best American Poetry 2006 (Editor) 189 copies, 5 reviews
Bright Wings: An Illustrated Anthology of Poems about Birds 158 copies, 8 reviews
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Also by Billy Collins
Trout Fishing in America (Introduction, some editions) 1,727 copies, 35 reviews
The Future Dictionary of America (Contributor) 622 copies, 3 reviews
Poetry Speaks to Children, Read & Hear [book & CD] (Guest, some editions) 581 copies, 15 reviews
The Book That Changed My Life: 71 Remarkable Writers Celebrate the Books… (Contributor) 376 copies, 17 reviews
Mortification: Writers' Stories of Their Public Shame (Contributor) 291 copies, 4 reviews
The Spoken Word Revolution: Slam, Hip Hop, and the Poetry of a New… (Introduction, some editions) 242 copies
The Best American Poetry 2001 (Contributor) 218 copies
The Best American Poetry 2000 (Contributor) 211 copies
The Best American Poetry 1999 (Contributor) 208 copies
The Best American Poetry 2004 (Contributor) 197 copies
Teaching with Fire: Poetry That Sustains the Courage to Teach (Contributor) 197 copies, 1 review
The Art of Losing (Contributor) 190 copies, 20 reviews
From Totems to Hip-Hop: A Multicultural Anthology of Poetry Across the… (Contributor) 170 copies
The Best American Poetry 2003 (Contributor) 169 copies, 1 review
The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 2008: 21st Annual Collection (Contributor) 165 copies, 4 reviews
Eat, Memory: Great Writers at the Table: A Collection of Essays from the… (Contributor) 165 copies, 6 reviews
The Best American Poetry 1997 (Contributor) 165 copies
The Best American Poetry 2007 (Contributor) 163 copies, 1 review
The Best American Poetry 1998 (Contributor) 160 copies
Poetry Speaks Expanded: Hear Poets Read Their Own Work from Tennyson to… (Contributor) 145 copies, 1 review
The Best American Poetry 2009 (Contributor) 133 copies, 1 review
Light the Dark: Writers on Creativity, Inspiration, and the Artistic… (Contributor) 128 copies, 4 reviews
The Best American Poetry 1993 (Contributor) 127 copies, 1 review
The Best American Poetry 2010 (Contributor) 117 copies, 3 reviews
The Poetry Pharmacy: Tried-and-True Prescriptions for the Heart, Mind, and… 113 copies, 3 reviews
Emergency Kit (Contributor, some editions) 107 copies, 1 review
The Poets Laureate Anthology (Introduction) 106 copies, 2 reviews
The Best American Poetry 1992 (Contributor) 100 copies
Leading From Within: Poetry That Sustains the Courage to Lead (Contributor) 99 copies, 3 reviews
The Best American Poetry 2017 (Contributor) 88 copies, 1 review
The Golden Age: Poems of the Spanish Renaissance (Introduction, some editions) 85 copies
The Best American Poetry 2011 (Contributor) 84 copies, 4 reviews
The Spoken Word Revolution Redux (Contributor) 83 copies, 3 reviews
Haiku in English: The First Hundred Years (Introduction) 80 copies, 5 reviews
The Best American Poetry 2012 (Contributor) 79 copies, 1 review
The Best American Poetry 2013 (Contributor) 75 copies, 2 reviews
The Hungry Ear: Poems of Food and Drink (Contributor) 62 copies, 1 review
Bullets Into Bells: Poets and Citizens Respond to Gun Violence (Contributor) 51 copies, 3 reviews
Best of The Oxford American: Ten Years from the Southern Magazine of Good… (Contributor) 42 copies
The Best American Poetry 2021 (Contributor) 41 copies, 1 review
The Best Spiritual Writing 2011 (Introduction) 38 copies
Poems Dead and Undead (Everyman's Library Pocket Poets) 38 copies, 1 review
Birds in the Hand: Fiction and Poetry about Birds (Contributor) 32 copies, 1 review
The Best Spiritual Writing 2012 (Contributor) 25 copies, 1 review
The Golden Shovel Anthology: New Poems Honoring Gwendolyn Brooks (Contributor) 16 copies
Of Leaf and Flower: Stories and Poems for Gardeners (Contributor) 11 copies
Five points : a journal of literature & arts : vol. 7 no. 2 (Contributor) 2 copies
Nausea 9, Fall 1975 (Contributor) 1 copy
Speaking of Work: A Story of Love, Suspense and Paperclips (Contributor) 1 copy
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Common Knowledge
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Canonical name
Legal name
Collins, William James
Other names
COLLINS,, William James
COLLINS, Billy
Date of birth
1941-03-22
Date of death
Burial location
Gender
male
Nationality
USA
Country (for map)
Birthplace
New York, New York, USA
Place of death
Cause of death
Places of residence
Education
College of the Holy Cross (BA, 1963)
University of California, Riverside (PhD)
Occupations
professor (English ∙ Lehman College)
visiting writer (Sarah Lawrence College)
poet
Relationships
Agents
Organizations
Awards and honors
US Poet Laureate (2001-2003)
New York State Poet (2004)
New York Public Library Literary Lion (1992)
Aiken Taylor Award (2011)
Frederick Bock Award (1992)
Short biography
Disambiguation notice

LibraryThing Early Reviewers Alum

Billy Collins's book Aimless Love was available from LibraryThing Early Reviewers.

Billy Collins's book The Art of Losing was available from LibraryThing Early Reviewers.

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Average: (3.97)
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1 28
1.5 12
2 124
2.5 37
3 609
3.5 147
4 1101
4.5 121
5 945

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