Celebrated Poet Laureate at Elizabethtown College

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Poet Laureate BIlly Collins

ELIZABETHTOWN, PA (09/30/2014)(readMedia)-- The job of a Poet Laureate is to raise awareness and appreciation of poetry across the country. Formally known as the Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress, it is an annual appointment. When Billy Collins was Poet Laureate he was ask to write and read a poem for a special joint session of the United States Congress held in 2002 to remember the victims of the 9/11 attacks.

Collins, one of the most popular and celebrated poets in America, will visit Elizabethtown College to read from his poetry at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 8, in the College's Leffler Chapel and Performance Center.

No poet, since Robert Frost, has managed to combine high critical acclaim with broad popular appeal. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review and The American Scholar. He is a Guggenheim fellow and a New York Public Library "Literary Lion." From 2004 to 2006 Collins was Poet Laureate for New York State.

His audience-enhanced tremendously by his appearances on National Public Radio-includes people of all backgrounds and age groups and his last three collections of poems broke sales records. His readings are usually standing room only.

He is a Distinguished Professor of English at Lehman College of the City University of New York as well as a Senior Distinguished Fellow of the Winter Park Institute at Rollins College.

Collins earned his bachelor's degree in English from the College of the Holy Cross and his master's and doctoral degrees in romantic poetry from the University of California, Riverside. He founded The Mid-Atlantic Review and was poetry consultant for Smithsonian Magazine.

Collins calls his poetry "a form of travel writing" and considers humor "a door into the serious." A typical poem opens on a clear and hospitable note but soon takes an unexpected turn; poems that begin in irony may end in a moment of lyric surprise.

The reading is free. Contact: Carmine Sarracino at sarracct@etown.edu or 717-361-1237

Read about additional events at Elizabethtown College.

Elizabethtown College, located in historic Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, is a private coed institution offering more than four dozen liberal arts, fine and performing arts, science and engineering, business, communications and education degrees. Learn more: http://www.etown.edu/about/

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