Billy Collins is an American phenomenon. No poet since Robert Frost has managed to combine high critical acclaim with such 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.” His last three collections of poems have broken sales records for poetry. The poems themselves best explain this phenomenon, typically opening on a clear and hospitable note but soon taking an unexpected turn; poems that begin in irony may end in a moment of lyric surprise. No wonder Collins sees his poetry as “a form of travel writing” and considers humor “a door into the serious”. It is a door that many thousands of readers have opened with amazement and delight. Billy Collins has published ten collections of poetry; his most recent book, Aimless Love: New and Selected Poems 2003 – 2013, is a New York Times bestseller. In June 2001, Billy Collins was appointed United States Poet Laureate 2001-2003. In January 2004, he was named New York State Poet Laureate 2004-06. He is a Distinguished Professor of English at Lehman College of the City University of New York.
