Billy Collins attended the College of the Holy Cross to receive his BA in English as well as the University of California, Riverside to receive his MA and Ph.D in English.
His published works include but are not limited to: Ballistics (2008); She Was Just Seventeen (2006); The Trouble with Poetry (2005); Nine Horses (2002); Sailing Alone Around the Room: New and Selected Poems (2001); Picnic, Lightning (1998); The Art of Drowning (1995), which was a finalist for the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize; Questions About Angels (1991), which was selected by Edward Hirsch for the National Poetry Series; The Apple That Astonished Paris (1988);Video Poems (1980); and Pokerface (1977). Collins’ work has appeared in textbooks, anthologies, and periodicals including the American Poetry Review, American Scholar, Harper’s, Paris Review, and The New Yorker.
His work has been featured in the Pushcart Prize anthology and has been selected several times for The Best American Poetry series. Collins was also named the Poet Laureate of the United States from 2001 to 2003. His other achievements include fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Guggenheim Foundation. Collins works as a visiting professor at the University of New York and Columbia University, currently living in Somers, New York.
Billy Collins’ poem “Retraction” appeared in Issue 11.2-Summer/Fall 1999, and a review of his book, Nine Horses, appeared in Issue 15 Winter/Spring 2003. He also judged Sycamore Review’s 2008 Wabash Prize for Poetry.
