Charles Simic

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Template:Short description Template:Use American English Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox poet Dušan Simić (Template:Lang-sr-cyr, Template:IPA; May 9, 1938 – January 9, 2023), known as Charles Simic, was a Serbian American poet and poetry co-editor of The Paris Review. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1990 for The World Doesn't End and was a finalist of the Pulitzer Prize in 1986 for Selected Poems, 1963–1983 and in 1987 for Unending Blues. He was appointed the fifteenth United States Poet Laureate in 2007.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Biography

Early years

Dušan Simić was born in Belgrade. In his early childhood, during World War II, he and his family were forced to evacuate their home several times to escape indiscriminate bombing of Belgrade. Growing up as a child in war-torn Europe shaped much of his worldview, Simic stated. In an interview from the Cortland Review he said, "Being one of the millions of displaced persons made an impression on me. In addition to my own little story of bad luck, I heard plenty of others. I'm still amazed by all the vileness and stupidity I witnessed in my life."<ref>Charles Simic profile Template:Webarchive, CortlandReview.com. Retrieved April 21, 2017.</ref>

Simic immigrated to the United States with his brother and mother to join his father in 1954, when he was sixteen. After spending a year in New York, he moved with his family to Oak Park, Illinois, where he graduated from high school.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 1961, he was drafted into the U.S. Army, and in 1966, he earned his B.A. from New York University while working at night to cover the costs of tuition.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Career

Simic began to make a name for himself in the early to mid-1970s as a literary minimalist, writing terse, imagistic poems.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Critics have referred to Simic's poems as "tightly constructed Chinese puzzle boxes". He himself stated: "Words make love on the page like flies in the summer heat and the poet is merely the bemused spectator."<ref>Simic, Charles (ed.) (1992) The Best American Poetry 1992, Charles Scribner's Sons p xv Template:ISBN</ref>

He was a professor of American literature and creative writing at University of New Hampshire beginning in 1973<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and lived in Strafford, New Hampshire.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Simic wrote on such diverse topics as jazz, art, and philosophy.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He was influenced by Emily Dickinson, Pablo Neruda, and Fats Waller.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He was a translator, essayist, and philosopher, opining on the current state of contemporary American poetry. He held the position of poetry editor of The Paris Review and was later replaced by Dan Chiasson. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1995, received the Academy Fellowship in 1998, and was elected a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets in 2000.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Simic was one of the judges for the 2007 Griffin Poetry Prize and continued to contribute poetry and prose to The New York Review of Books. He received the US$100,000 Wallace Stevens Award in 2007 from the Academy of American Poets.<ref>Template:Cite press release</ref>

Simic was selected by James H. Billington, Librarian of Congress, to be the fifteenth United States Poet Laureate, succeeding Donald Hall. In choosing Simic as the poet laureate, Billington cited "the rather stunning and original quality of his poetry".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In 2011, Simic was the recipient of the Frost Medal, presented annually for "lifetime achievement in poetry".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Simic's extensive papers as well as other material about his work are held at the University of New Hampshire Library Milne Special Collections and Archives.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Personal life and death

Simic married fashion designer Helene Dubin in 1964, and their union produced two children. In 1971, he became an American citizen.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Simic died of complications of dementia on January 9, 2023, at age 84.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Awards

Bibliography

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Poetry

Collections

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Translations

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  • 1970: Ivan V. Lalić, Fire Gardens<ref name=loccs/>
  • 1970: Vasko Popa, The Little Box: Poems<ref name=loccs/>
  • 1970: Four Modern Yugoslav Poets: Ivan V. Lalić, Branko Miljkovic, Milorad Pavić, Ljubomir Simović<ref name=loccs/>
  • 1979: Vasko Popa, Homage to the Lame Wolf: Selected Poems<ref name=loccs/>
  • 1983: Co-translator, Slavko Mihalić, Atlantis<ref name=loccs/>
  • 1987: Tomaž Šalamun, Selected Poems<ref name=loccs/>
  • 1987: Ivan V. Lalić, Roll Call of Mirrors<ref name=loccs/>
  • 1989: Aleksandar Ristović, Some Other Wine or Light<ref name=loccs/>
  • 1991: Slavko Janevski, Bandit Wind<ref name=loccs/>
  • 1992: Novica Tadić, Night Mail: Selected Poems<ref name=loccs/>
  • 1992: Horse Has Six Legs: Contemporary Serbian Poetry<ref name=loccs/>
  • 1999: Aleksandar Ristović, Devil's Lunch<ref name=loccs/>
  • 2003: Radmila Lazić, A Wake for the Living<ref name=loccs/>
  • 2004: Günter Grass, The Günter Grass Reader<ref name=loccs/>
  • 2019: Vasko Popa, Selected Poems<ref name="Popa Simic 2019 p. ">Template:Cite book</ref>

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List of poems
Title Year First published Reprinted/collected
Left out of the Bible 2021 Template:Cite journal
Windy day 2021 Template:Cite journal

Non-fiction

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  • 1985: The Uncertain Certainty: Interviews, Essays, and Notes on Poetry<ref name=loccs/>
  • 1990: Wonderful Words, Silent Truth: Essays on Poetry and a Memoir<ref name=loccs/>
  • 1992: Dime-Store Alchemy: The Art of Joseph Cornell<ref name=loccs/>
  • 1994: The Unemployed Fortune-Teller: Essays and Memoirs<ref name=loccs/>
  • 1997: Orphan Factory: Essays and Memoirs<ref name=loccs/>
  • 2000: A Fly in the Soup: Memoirs<ref name=loccs/>
  • 2003: The Metaphysician in the Dark<ref name=loccs/> (University of Michigan Press, Poets on Poetry Series)
  • 2006: Template:Cite book
  • 2008: The Renegade: Writings on Poetry and a Few Other Things<ref name=loccs/>
  • 2015: The Life of Images: Selected Prose<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

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See also

References

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Profiles

Work

Interviews and review

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