Billy Collins, a popular American poet, was born in New York City in 1941. His works have appeared in anthologies and publications such as Poetry, The American Poetry Review, The American Scholar, Harper's, The Paris Review and The New Yorker. Collins writes with a sense or humor and his subjects usually involve the ordinary and everyday life.

Collins has received numerous fellowships including the New York Foundation for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Guggenheim Foundation. In 2001, he was appointed U. S. Poet Laureate, and in 2004, New York Poet Laureate. In 1992, he served as Literary Lion for the New York Public Library.

The Art of Drowning was a finalist for the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize, and Questions about Angels was selected by Edward Hirsch for the National Poetry Series.

Billy Collins is a distinguished professor of English at Lehman College (CUNY).

Works by Collins

Pokerface (1977)

Video Poems (1980)

The Apple that Astonished Paris (1988)

The Art of Drowning (1995)

The Best Cigarette (spoken word CD) (1997)

Picnic, Lightning(1998)

Questions about Angels (1999)

Sailing Alone Around the Room (2001)

Nine Horses (2002)

Poetry 180 (2003)

Collins and the Web

This site offers reviews, comments, news, and other links on Billy Collins and his works: http://www.bigsnap.com/billy.html.

For more information on the poet and to read his poem, "Fishing on the Susquehanna in July," visit http://www.poets.org/poets/poets.cfm?prmID=284.