{"product_id":"conversations-with-billy-collins-paperback","title":"Conversations with Billy Collins - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eJohn Cusatis\u003c\/b\u003e (Editor)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBilly Collins \"puts the 'fun' back in profundity,\" says poet Alice Fulton. Known for what he has called \"hospitable\" poems, which deftly blend wit and erudition, Collins (b. 1941) is a poet of nearly unprecedented popularity. His work is also critically esteemed and well represented in \u003ci\u003eThe Norton Anthology of American Literature\u003c\/i\u003e. An English professor for five decades, Collins was fifty-seven when his poetry began gathering considerable international attention. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003ci\u003eConversations with Billy Collins\u003c\/i\u003e chronicles the poet's career beginning with his 1998 interview with Terry Gross on \u003ci\u003eFresh Air\u003c\/i\u003e, which exponentially expanded his readership, three years prior to his being named United States Poet Laureate. Other interviewers range from George Plimpton, founder of the \u003ci\u003eParis Revi\u003c\/i\u003ee\u003ci\u003ew\u003c\/i\u003e, to Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Henry Taylor to a Presbyterian pastor, a physics professor, and a class of AP English Literature students. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Over the course of the twenty-one interviews included in the volume, Collins discusses such topics as discovering his persona, that consistently affable voice that narrates his often wildly imaginative poems; why poetry is so loved by children but often met with anxiety by high school students; and his experience composing a poem to be recited during a joint session of Congress on the first anniversary of 9\/11, a tragedy that occurred during his tenure as poet laureate. He also explores his love of jazz, his distaste for gratuitously difficult poetry and autobiographical poems, and his beguiling invention of a mock poetic form: the paradelle. Irreverent, incisive, and deeply life-affirming--like his twelve volumes of poetry--these interviews, gathered for the first time in one volume, will edify and entertain readers in the way his sold-out readings have done for the past quarter century.\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eJohn Cusatis\u003c\/b\u003e teaches at the Charleston School of the Arts. He is author of \u003ci\u003eUnderstanding Colum McCann\u003c\/i\u003e, the first critical study of the Irish-born National Book Award winner; editor of \u003ci\u003ePostwar Literature, 1945-1970 \u003c\/i\u003eand three volumes of the \u003ci\u003eDictionary of Literary Biography\u003c\/i\u003e; and coeditor (with Earl G. Ingersoll) of \u003ci\u003eConversations with John Banville\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 234\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.53 x 9 x 6 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e July 27, 2022\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Books by splitShops","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42727697285183,"sku":"9781496840677","price":60.48,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0105\/8226\/1823\/files\/385dcdc484a56bec36c5677150ba2268_905c8230-f4ea-4b37-b75f-49a9dfef7ecd.webp?v=1765115816","url":"https:\/\/dhlswag.com\/products\/conversations-with-billy-collins-paperback","provider":"BBB","version":"1.0","type":"link"}