United States Poet Laureate Ted Kooser will speak at Peru State College on Thursday, 3 March.
"What could possibly be wrong with a world in which everybody was trying to write poems." (Ted Kooser)
The honored guest of Peru State College's Creative Writers Series and Student Services, Ted Kooser will read at 11:00 a.m. in the Live Oak Room located in the Student Center. This event is free and open to the public.
In announcing the appointment of Ted Kooser as the country's 13th Poet Laureate, Librarian of Congress James H. Billington praised Kooser, noting that he "is a major poetic voice for rural and small town America and the first Poet Laureate chosen from the Great Plains. His verse reaches beyond his native region to touch on universal themes in accessible ways.”
A retired Lincoln insurance company executive, Kooser was born in Ames, Iowa; he earned a B.A. at Iowa State and a MS from UNL. Ted is a Visiting Professor of English at UNL and lives in Garland, surrounded by the rural landscapes that continue to inspire his work. As a recent article in the Omaha World Herald notes, "He's a master of clear writing that transforms the everyday into the extraordinary."
Ted Kooser is the author of ten books of poetry and the recipient of even more awards, a partial list of which you will find at this site. In addition to being named the country's poet laureate, Kooser has also earned, among many other accolades, The Pushcart Prize, The Richard Hugo Prize, and Nebraska Book Awards for both poetry (Winter Morning Walks: One Hundred Postcards to Jim Harrison, Carnegie-Mellon UP, 2000) and non-fiction (Local Wonders: Seasons in the Bohemian Alps, U of Nebraska P, 2002).
His most recent publications include a collection of poetry, Delights and Shadows (Copper Canyon Press, 2004), winner of the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, and The Poetry Home Repair Manual: Practical Advice for Beginning Poets (University of Nebraska Press, 2005).
To learn more about Ted Kooser and to read some of his work, please visit one of the following sites:
The Poetry and Literature Center of the Library of Congress
If you have any questions about this event, please contact Dr. Bill Clemente, Department of English; 872-2233, bclemente@oakmail.peru.edu.
"In the process of writing you have to examine what you're saying. It's basically a good drill for anyone."
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