Billy Collins

Billy Collins photo (c) Laura Wilson

BILLY COLLINS is the author of thirteen books of poetry, his most recent being Musical Tables. He has edited three anthologies: Poetry 180: A Turning Back to Poetry, 180 More: Extraordinary Poems for Every Day, and Bright Wings: An Illustrated Anthology of Poems about Birds.  A new collection, Water,Water, will appear later this year.  Collins' poetry has appeared in anthologies, textbooks, and a variety of periodicals including Poetry, The American Scholar, Harper's, The Paris Review, and The New Yorker. 

Awarded the first Mark Twain Prize from the Poetry Foundation for humor in poetry, he also was chosen by the New York Public Library to be a "Library Lion." A graduate of Holy Cross College, he received his doctorate from the University of California at Riverside and is a former Distinguished Professor at Lehman College (CUNY).  He served two terms as United States Poet Laureate (2001-2003) and as New York State Poet (2004-2006). He is a member of The American Academy of Arts and Letters.