New Poet Laureate - Charles Simic

From the NY Times, "Charles Simic, Surrealist With Dark View, Is Named Poet Laureate":

Charles Simic, a writer who juxtaposes dark imagery with ironic humor, is to be named the country’s 15th poet laureate by the Librarian of Congress today.

Mr. Simic, 69, was born in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, and immigrated to the United States at 16. He started writing poetry in English only a few years after learning the language and has published more than 20 volumes of poetry, as well as essay collections, translations and a memoir.

A retired professor of American literature and creative writing at the University of New Hampshire, he won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1990 and held a MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant from 1984 to 1989...

Comments

[clay banes]

bring another republic back to print. you can do it.

[Mike]

we were planning to re-issue it anyway since we're doing a little translation push, and then, SMACK, comes the PLOTUS. we're to the hilt with this one.

[Robert]

"[J]uxtaposes dark imagery with ironic humor" doesn't really do his work justice. But I suppose it's a way of describing the indescribable to the general public.

[Mike]

I agree. It's a little flat, but they had to write something in time for print.