Former Poet Laureate to Deliver Silverman Reading

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Former U.S. poet laureate Billy Collins will deliver the 30th annual Oscar Silverman Poetry Reading at 8 p.m. Nov. 17 in Lippes Concert Hall in Slee Hall on the University at Buffalo's North (Amherst) Campus.

The reading will be free and open to the public. It is held in memory of Oscar Silverman, distinguished UB scholar and teacher who chaired the Department of English and directed the University Libraries. He also helped to develop UB's extensive collection of 20th-century poetry.

A native of New York City, Collins is the author of several books of poetry, among them "The Trouble with Poetry" (2005); "Nine Horses" (2002); "Sailing Alone Around the Room: New and Selected Poems" (2001); "Picnic, Lightning" (1998); "The Art of Drowning" (1995), which was a finalist for the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize; and "Questions About Angels" (1991), which was selected by Edward Hirsch for the National Poetry Series.

A recording of Collins reading 33 of his poems, "The Best Cigarette," was released in 1997. His poetry has appeared in anthologies, textbooks and a variety of periodicals, including Poetry, American Poetry Review, American Scholar, Harper's, Paris Review and The New Yorker.

His work also has been featured in the "Pushcart Prize" anthology and has been chosen several times for the annual Best American Poetry series. Collins edited "Poetry 180: A Turning Back to Poetry" (Random House, 2003), an anthology of contemporary poems for use in schools and was a guest editor for the 2006 edition of "The Best American Poetry."

He was U.S. poet laureate from 2001-03. His other honors and awards include fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation.

He has conducted summer poetry workshops in Ireland at University College Galway, and has taught at Columbia University, Sarah Lawrence and Lehman College, CUNY.