Billy collins brief biography of joe

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Poems Biography. William was born to a large family from Ireland and Katherine was from Canada. His mother, Katherine Collins, was a nurse who stopped working to raise the couple's only child. Collins had the ability to recite verses on almost any subject, which she often did, and cultivated in her young son the love of words, both written and spoken.

Billy Collins' father was a worker on Wall Street who Collins attributes as an inspiration to his humor. His professors at Riverside included Victorian scholar and poet Robert Peters. There he came under the influence of contemporary poets like Karl Shapiro, Howard Nemerov and Reed Whittemore, and during his adolescence he was influenced by Beat Generation poets as well.

Collins has taught and served as a visiting writer at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York as well as teaching workshops across the U. Collins was named U. Poet Laureate in and held the title until Collins has been invited to read at The White House three times—in , , and In he traveled to Russia as a cultural emissary of the U.