19 Contemporary Literature, 1970 to Present
“Poetry, Pleasure, and the Hedonist Reader,” in The Eye of the Poet: Six Views of the
Art and Craft of Poetry, edited by David Citino (New York: Oxford University
Press, 2001), pp. 1–33.
Essay in which Collins considers “what exactly—or even vaguely—happens to us”
psychologically and physically “when we do read a poem.”
Robert Potts, “A Conversation with Billy Collins,” Coachella Review (Fall 2009)
http://thecoachellareview.com/poetry/interview_billycollins_fall09.html
[accessed 26 February 2010].
Short interview in which Collins discusses influences on his poetry and why he
believes people are turning more to poetry.
Sailing Alone around the Room: New and Selected Poems (New York: Random
House, 2001).
Includes poems from previous collections, providing an excellent sampling of
Collins’s work.
“Seventy-Five Needles in the Haystack of Poetry,” in The Best American Poetry,
2006, edited by Collins (New York: Scribner Poetry, 2006), pp. xv–xxiii.
Introduction in which Collins describes his criteria of selection, giving an insight
into what he values in poetry and what he does not.
She Was Just Seventeen (Lincoln, Ill.: Modern Haiku Press, 2006).
A chapbook of haiku.
Taking off Emily Dickinson’s Clothes (London: Picador, 2000).
The first collection of Collins’s work published outside the United States. It
includes poems from his first four books.
Joel Whitney, “A Brisk Walk: Billy Collins in Conversation,” Guernica: A Maga-
zine of Art and Politics (2006) http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prm-
MID/19796 [accessed 26 February 2010].
Excellent resource in which Collins discusses his childhood, first attempts at
poetry, influences, and views on difficult poetry.
Criticism
David Baker, “Smarts,” in Heresy and the Ideal: On Contemporary Poetry (Fayette-
ville: University of Arkansas Press, 2000), pp. 119–136.
Chapter dealing with Collins, Susan Howe, Andrew Hudgins, Mark Doty, and
Lynda Hall. An analysis of the meanings of Collins’s poetry and of the strategies
he employs to convey them comprises the last four pages of the chapter.
Dwight Garner, “Stand-Up Poet,” New York Times, 29 September 2001 http://
[http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/23/books/stand-up-poet.html?pagewanted=all](http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/23/books/stand-up-poet.html?pagewanted=all>)
[accessed 26 February 2010].
A mostly positive review of Sailing Alone around the Room, with discussions of
several individual poems.