Charles Simic

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Charles Simic. Photo by Philip Simic. Courtesy the Library of Congress.

Charles Simic
Born	Dušan Simić May 9 1938 (1938-05-09) Belgrade, Yugoslavia
Occupation	Poet
Nationality	Serbian
Notable award(s)	Pulitzer Prize in Poetry, Wallace Stevens Award

Dušan “Charles” Simić (born May 9, 1938) is a Serbian-American poet, who was the 15th Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress.

Life

Youth

Simic was born in Belgrade, Serbia then part of Yugoslavia. Growing up as a child in war-torn Europe shaped much of his world-view, Simic states. 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." Simic immigrated to the United States with his family in 1954 when he was 16. He grew up in Chicago and received his B.A. from New York University.

Career

Simic is professor emeritus of American literature and creative writing at the University of New Hampshire, and lives on the shore of Bow Lake in Strafford, New Hampshire.

He began to make a name for himself in the early to mid 1970s as a literary minimalist, writing terse, imagistic poems. Critics have often referred to Simic poems as "tightly constructed Chinese puzzle boxes." Simic has stated: "Words make love on the page like flies in the summer heat and the poet is merely the bemused spectator." He writes on such diverse topics as jazz, art, and philosophy. He is also 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 replaced by Dan Chiasson.

Recognition

Simic won the 1990 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry for The World Doesn't End.

Simic was one of the judges for the 2007 Griffin Poetry Prize and continues to contribute poetry and prose to The New York Review of Books. Simic received the US$100,000 Wallace Stevens Award in 2007 from the Academy of American Poets.

Simic was selected by James Billington, Librarian of Congress, to be the 15th Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress, succeeding Donald Hall. Billington referred to "the rather stunning and original quality of his poetry".

Awards

• MacArthur Fellowship (1984-1989)
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry (1990)
• Wallace Stevens Award (2007)
• Frost Medal (2011)

Publications

Poetry

• What the Grass Says. San Francisco, CA: Kayak, 1967.
• Somewhere among Us a Stone Is Taking Notes. San Francisco, CA: Kayak, 1969.
• Dismantling the Silence. New York: Braziller, 1971.
• White. New Rivers Press, 1972.
  • revised edition, Durango, CO: Logbridge Rhodes, 1980.
• Return to a Place Lit by a Glass of Milk. New York: Braziller, 1974.
• Biography and a Lament. Hartford, CT: Bartholemew's Cobble, 1976.
• Charon's Cosmology. New York: Braziller, 1977.
• Brooms: Selected poems. Christchurch, NZ: Edge Press, 1978.
• School for Dark Thoughts. Pawlet, VT: Banyan Press, 1978.
• Classic Ballroom Dances. New York: Braziller, 1980.
• Austerities. New York: Braziller, 1982.
• Weather Forecast for Utopia and Vicinity. Barrytown, NY: Station Hill Press, 1983.
• Selected Poems, 1963-1983. New York: Braziller, 1985.
• Unending Blues. New York: Harcourt, 1986.
• Nine Poems. Cambridge, MA: Exact Change, 1989.
• The World Doesn't End. New York: Harcourt, 1989.
• The Book of Gods and Devils. New York: Harcourt, 1990.
• Hotel Insomnia. New York: Harcourt, 1992.
• A Wedding in Hell: Poems. New York: Harcourt, 1994.
• Frightening Toys. New York: Faber, 1995.
• Walking the Black Cat: Poems. New York: Harcourt, 1996.
• Jackstraws: Poems. New York: Harcourt, 1999
  • revised edition. New York: Faber, 2000.
• Selected Early Poems. New York: Braziller, 2000.
• Night Picnic. New York: Harcourt, 2001.
• The Voice at 3:00 a.m.: Selected Late and New Poems. New York: Harcourt, 2003.
• Selected Poems, 1963-2003. London: Faber, 2004.
• Aunt Lettuce, I Want to Peek under Your Skirt. New York: Bloomsbury, 2005.
• My Noiseless Entourage: Poems. New York: Harcourt, 2005.
• Monkey Around, 2006.
• Sixty Poems. Washington, PA: Harvest Books 2008.
• That Little Something: Poems. New York: Harcourt, 2008.
• The Monster Loves His Labyrinth. Port Townsend, WA: Ausable Press, , 2008.

Non-fiction

• The Uncertain Certainty: Interviews, essays, and notes on poetry. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 1985.
• Wonderful Words, Silent Truth. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 1990.
• Dime-Store Alchemy: The art of Joseph Cornell. New York: Ecco, 1992.
• The Unemployed Fortune-Teller: Essays and memoirs. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 1994.
• Orphan Factory: Essays and memoirs. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 1997.
• A Fly in the Soup: Memoirs. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2000.
• Metaphysician in the Dark (essays). Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2003.

Translated

• Ivan V. Lalic, Fire Gardens. Moorhead, MN: New Rivers Press, 1970.
• Vasko Popa, The Little Box: Poems. Washington, DC: Charioteer Press, 1970.
• Four Modern Yugoslav Poets: Ivan V. Lalic, Branko Miljkovic, Milorad Pavic, Ljubomir Simovic. Ithaca, NY: Lillabulero, 1970.
• Another Republic: Seventeen European and South American writers (translated & edited with Mark Strand). New York: Viking, 1976.
• Vasko Popa, Homage to the Lame Wolf: Selected poems. Oberlin, OH: Field, 1979.
• Slavko Mihalic, Atlantis (translated with Peter Kastmiler). Greenfield Center, NY: Greenfield Review Press, 1983.
• Tomaz Salamun, Selected Poems. New York: Viking, 1987.
• Ivan V. Lalic, Roll Call of Mirrors. Wesleyan University Press, 1987.
• Aleksandar Ristovic, Some Other Wine or Light. Washington, CD: Charioteer Press, 1989.
• Stavko Janevski, Bandit Wind. College Park, MD: Dryad Press, 1991.
• Novica Tadic, Night Mail: Selected poems. Oberlin, OH: Oberlin College Press, 1992.
• Horse Has Six Legs: Contemporary Serbian poetry. Saint Paul, MN: Graywolf Press, 1992.
• Aleksander Ristovic, Devil's Lunch. New York: Faber, 1999.
• Radmila Lazic, A Wake for the Living. Saint Paul, MN: Graywolf Press, 2003.
• Gunter Grass, The Gunter Grass Reader. New York: Harcourt, 2004.

Edited

• New British Poetry (edited with Don Paterson). Saint Paul, MN: Graywolf Press, 2004.

Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy the Poetry Foundation.

Audio / video

Poetry Everywhere "Stone" by Charles Simic

• Charles Simic (cassette). New York: Academy of American Poets, 1974; (CD), 1977.
• School for Dark Thoughts. (cassette). Washington, DC: Watershed Tapes, 1978.
• Charles Simic Reading (CD). Aspen, CO: Aspen Writers Conference, 1990.
• Charles Simic Lecture (CD). Aspen, CO: Aspen Writers Conference, 1990.
• Charles Simic: Reading from his poems (CD). Minchinhampton, Gloucestershire, UK: Poetry Archive, [2004?]

Except where noted, discographical information courtesy WorldCat.

See also

• List of U.S. poets

References

Notes

External links

Poems

• "As You Come over the Hill"
• "Stone"
• "The Partial Explanation" at Poetry 180

&Charles Simic 7 poems at Poems and Pickaxes

• Charles Simic profile & 15 poems at the Academy of American Poets
• Profile and poems of Charles Simic b. 1938 at the Poetry Foundation
• Charles Simic at PoemHunter (29 poems)
• "Seven Prose Poems" by Charles Simic in The Cafe Irreal 4:1 (February 2005)

Prose

• Simic author page and article archive from the New York Review of Books

Audio/video

• Griffin Poetry Prize biography and video clip
• Charles Simic (b.1938) at The Poetry Archive (profile and poems written and audio)
• Charles Simic at YouTube
• Audio recording (.mp3) of Charles Simic reading at the Key West Literary Seminar, 2003
• Simic reading from a collection of his own works (Audio, 14 mins)
• Video of Charles Simic reading at Boston University's Robert Lowell Memorial Lecture, 2009 (60 mins)
• Charles Simic at YouTube

Books

• Charles Simic at Amazon.com

About

• Charles Simic in the Encyclopædia Britannica
• Charles Simic at NNDB.
• Charles Simic: Online Resources at the Library of Congress
• SESSIONS: Confessions of a Poet Laureate nthWORD Magazine Shorts, April 18, 2011
• Mark Ford (Spring 2005). "Charles Simic, The Art of Poetry No. 90". The Paris Review. http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/5507/the-art-of-poetry-no-90-charles-simic. 
• The Cortland Review interview August 1998
• "Charles Simic: The orphan Of silence"; Doctoral thesis by Goran Mijuk 1 February 2002
• An Interview with Charles Simic by Dejan Stojanović Serbian Magazine 89, August 9–23, 1991