Events Calendar

Poetry in Conversation: Billy Collins and Carol Muske-Dukes

Admission is free.
Reception and book signing to follow.

Billy Collins, U.S. poet laureate from 2001 to 2003 and author of nine collections of poetry, is an American phenomenon. No poet since Robert Frost has managed to combine high critical acclaim with such broad popular appeal. Following a reading of his work, Collins will engage in conversation with USC professor and California poet laureate Carol Muske-Dukes on the art, craft and foibles of writing poetry.

Billy Collins’s work has appeared in a variety of periodicals, including The New Yorker, The Paris Review and The American Scholar. He has published nine collections of poetry: Questions About Angels, The Art of Drowning, Picnic, Lightning, Taking Off Emily Dickinson’s Clothes, Sailing Alone Around the Room, Nine Horses, The Trouble with Poetry and Ballistics. His numerous honors include fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation. He was appointed United States poet laureate from 2001 to 2003 and was named New York poet laureate from 2004 to 2006. Billy Collins is a distinguished professor of English at Lehman College of the City University of New York.

Carol Muske-Dukes is the author of seven books of poetry, most recently Sparrow, a National Book Award finalist. She has written three novels, Life After Death, Saving St. Germ and Dear Digby, and a collection of essays entitled Married to the Icepick Killer: A Poet in Hollywood. She is a professor of English and creative writing and founding director of the PhD program in literature and creative writing at USC. She has received many awards and honors, including a Guggenheim fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship and several Pushcart Prizes. In 2008, she was appointed California poet laureate by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Organized by the USC College of Letters, Arts and Sciences.

Photo of Billy Collins: Steven Kovich

For further information on this event

Location: George Finley Bovard Administration Building (ADM) -

Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: Daria Yudacufski