Charles Simic
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Dušan Simić | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born | May 9, 1938 Belgrade, Yugoslavia (modern day Serbia) |
| Occupation | poet |
| Nationality | American  |
Charles Simic (IPA pronunciation: ˈsImIk)(born Dušan Simić, May 9, 1938 in Belgrade, Serbia) is a Serbian-American poet and the 15th Poet Laureate of the United States. He is co-Poetry Editor of the Paris Review. Simic is the 2007 recipient of the Wallace Stevens Award from the Academy of American Poets. This $100,000 (US) prize recognizes outstanding and proven mastery in the art of poetry.[1]
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[edit] Biography
Simic was born in Belgrade, which was then in Yugoslavia. Growing up in war-torn Europe as a child shaped much of his world-view. In an interview from Cortland Review he said, "Being one of the millions of displaced persons made an impression on me. In addition to my own little story of bad luck, I heard plenty of others. I'm still amazed by all the vileness and stupidity I witnessed in my life." Simic immigrated to the United States with his family in 1954 when he was sixteen. He grew up in Chicago and received his B.A. from New York University. He is professor emeritus of American literature and creative writing at the University of New Hampshire and lives on the shore of Bow Lake in Strafford, New Hampshire.
[edit] Poetry
He began to make a name for himself in the early to mid 1970s as a literary minimalist, writing terse, imagistic poems which, like those of William Blake, have their roots in observed objects that serve to extrapolate the universe.
Over the years, Simic's style has come to be considered immediately recognizable. Critics have often referred to Simic poems as "tightly constructed Chinese puzzle boxes." Simic himself has stated: "Words make love on the page like flies in the summer heat and the poet is only the bemused spectator." The quote intimates Simic's philosophy that true art must be greater than the person who created it.
He writes thoughtfully on such diverse topics as jazz, art, and philosophy. He exerts considerable influence not only as poet, but as translator, essayist and philosopher, opining on the current state of contemporary American poetry. He and Meghan O'Rourke are currently the poetry editors for The Paris Review.
Simic is one of the judges for the 2007 Griffin Poetry Prize and continues to contribute poetry and prose to The New York Review of Books.
[edit] Poet Laureate
On August 2, 2007, Simic was selected by James Billington, Librarian of Congress, to be the 15th Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress, succeeding Donald Hall. Billington referred to "the rather stunning and original quality of his poetry".[2]
[edit] Awards
- MacArthur Fellowship (1984-1989)
- Pulitzer Prize for Poetry (1990)
- Wallace Stevens Award (2007)
[edit] Bibliography
- What the Grass Says - 1967
- Somewhere Among Us A Stone Is Taking Notes - 1969
- Dismantling The Silence - 1971
- White - 1972
- Return To A Place Lit By A Glass Of Milk - 1974
- Charon's Cosmology - 1977
- School For Dark Thoughts - 1978
- Classic Ballroom Dances - 1980
- Austerities - 1982
- Weather Forecast for Utopia & Vacinity: Poems 1967-1982 - 1983
- Unending Blues - 1986
- The World Doesn't End: Prose Poems - 1989 (1990 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry)
- The Book of Gods and Devils - 1990
- Hotel Insomnia - 1992
- Dime-Store Alchemy: The Art of Joseph Cornell - 1993
- A Wedding in Hell - 1994
- Walking the Black Cat - 1996 (National Book Award in Poetry finalist)
- Jackstraws - 1999 (New York Times Notable Book of the Year)
- Night Picnic: Poems - 2001
- The Voice at 3:00 A.M.: Selected Late and New Poems - 2003
- Selected Poems: 1963-2003 - 2004 (winner of the 2005 International Griffin Poetry Prize)
- My Noiseless Entourage : Poems - 2005
- Monkey Around - 2006
- Sixty Poems - 2008
- That Little Something: Poems - 2008
- Monster Loves His Labyrinth - 2008
- Army: Memoir. In preparation - 2008
[edit] References
- ^ CHARLES SIMIC RECEIVES THE WALLACE STEVENS AWARD Press release from Academy of American Poets (August 2, 2007)
- ^ "Charles Simic, Surrealist With Dark View, Is Named Poet Laureate", The New York Times. Retrieved on 2007-08-01.
[edit] External links
- Charles Simic Online Resources, Library of Congress
- poets.org biography
- The Cortland Review interview
- Biography by Diva Desai
- Griffin Poetry Prize biography, including audio and video clips
- Seven Prose Poems by Charles Simic (in The Cafe Irreal)
- Charles Simic archive from The New York Review of Books
- Charles Simic: The Orphan Of Silence; Thesis by Goran Mijuk
| Preceded by Donald Hall |
Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress 2007- |
Succeeded by incumbent |
