New Releases by Billy Collins

Winner of the 1999 Paterson Poetry Prize Over the past decade, Billy Collins has emerged as the most beloved American poet since Robert Frost, garnering critical acclaim and broad popular appeal. Annie Proulx admits, "I have never before felt possessive about a poet, but I am fiercely glad that Billy Collins is ours." John Updike proclaims his poems "consistently startling, more serious than they seem, they describe all the worlds that are and were and some others besides." This special, limited edition celebrates Billy Collins''s years as U.S. Poet Laureate. Picnic, Lightning—one of the books that helped establish and secure his reputation and popularity during the 1990s—combines humor and seriousness, wit and sublimity. His poems touch on a wide range of subjects, from jazz to death, from weather to sex, but share common ground where the mind and heart can meet. Whether reading him for the first time or the fiftieth, this collector''s edition is a must-have for anyone interested in the poet the New York Times calls simply "the real thing."

This collection of poems has a subject matter ranging from the gustatory pleasures of osso buco to an analysis of the handwriting of Keats; from the art form of the calendar pinup to blues music.

Over the past decade, Billy Collins has emerged as the most beloved American poet since Robert Frost, garnering critical acclaim and broad popular appeal. Annie Proulx admits, "I have never before felt possessive about a poet, but I am fiercely glad that Billy Collins is ours."This special, limited edition celebrates Billy Collins''s years as U.S. Poet Laureate. Questions About Angels—one of the books that helped establish and secure his reputation and popularity during the 1990s—is remarkable for its wry, inquisitive voice and its sheer imaginative range. Edward Hirsch selected this classic book for the National Poetry Series, and each of Collins''s poems-from his meditation on forgetfulness to his musings on the behavior of angels-is an exploration of imaginative possibilities. Whether reading him for the first time or the fiftieth, this collector''s edition is a must-have for anyone interested in the poet the New York Times calls simply "the real thing."

Billy Collins strikes at the deepest concerns of the human heart and mind. His metaphysical wit and cosmic puzzlement, expressed always in a clean, direct, unpretentious idiom, will touch every reader who is fascinated by the play of a truly original imagination and a disarming way of seeing the world.

The collection includes 17 broadsides and 29 small broadsides, keepsakes, and other ephemera.