Simic Reflects On Poet Laureate Honor
Charles Simic appears in this New York portrait, May 2003.
Charles Simic was named the new U.S. poet laureate by the Library of Congress Thursday. Simic is the author of more than 20 books of poetry, including The World Doesn't End, a collection of prose poems for which he won the Pulitzer Prize in 1990.
In the same week, Simic was awarded the $100,000 Wallace Stevens Award for mastery in poetry from the Academy of American Poets.
"I'm almost frightened to get out of bed, too much good luck in one week," Simic says.
Born in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, Simic emigrated with his family to the United States after World War II. As a teenager, he learned English and began writing poetry. He is now a professor emeritus at the University of New Hampshire. He talks with Lynn Neary about his career.
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