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   from the issue of September 8, 2005

     
 
Kooser's verse draws accolades

A small, wiry man decked out in blue gingham, well-worn jeans and a khaki barn jacket has forever woven poetic verse into the fabric of UNL.

 

 

After being named the 13th poet laureate consultant to the Library of Congress in August 2004, Ted Kooser - professor of English - was awarded in April 2005, the Pulitzer for Poetry for his book "Delights and Shadows."

Following the award last April, Kooser has worked to bring poetry to everyone.

He has started a weekly newspaper column called "American Life in Poetry," and has helped edit a new, online literature listing titled "Great Books of the Great Plains."

He has also traveled extensively to readings, events and literary conferences while attending to his office in Washington, D.C. And, through it all, Kooser has still found time to continue teaching at UNL.

"Ted is such an important figure in American poetry now that it rubs off on all his associates," said Linda Pratt, former chair of the English Department. "It is a great thing for the Department of English and UNL to have a figure of that importance associated with us."

Kooser, the first Great Plains poet to be named laureate, is using his position to increase the visibility of poetry to the public.

"I'm dedicated to trying to convince people who don't read poetry that there are things in it for them, and to do that by example - to show them poems that might do something for them," Kooser told Poets and Writers Magazine. "The American Life in Poetry project is like that. I select poems that an average newspaper reader could pick up on and understand."

In the next year Kooser plans to continue to make himself accessible to the public and to maintain his newspaper column. The column is sponsored by The Poetry Foundation, the Library of Congress and UNL.

He will also take care of responsibilities at the Library of Congress, including hosting events and awarding prizes, and will also be working on an anthology of poems that use American folklore as subject matter.


GO TO: ISSUE OF SEPTEMBER 8

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