Charles Simic
Template:Short description Template:Use American English Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox poet Dušan Simić (Template:Lang-sr-cyr, {{#invoke:IPA|main}}; 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>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
BiographyEdit
Early yearsEdit
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>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=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>
CareerEdit
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>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and lived in Strafford, New Hampshire.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=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>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=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>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=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>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=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>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Personal life and deathEdit
Simic married fashion designer Helene Dubin in 1964, and their union produced two children. In 1971, he became an American citizen.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Simic died of complications of dementia on January 9, 2023, at age 84.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
AwardsEdit
- PEN Translation Prize (1980)<ref name="PEN America 2012">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
|CitationClass=web }}</ref>
- Ingram Merrill Foundation Fellowship (1983)<ref name="Fundacja Herberta 1938" />
- MacArthur Fellowship (1984–1989)<ref name="MacArthur Foundation 2022">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
|CitationClass=web }}</ref>
- Pulitzer Prize finalist (1986)<ref name="The Pulitzer Prizes_3">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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- Pulitzer Prize finalist (1987)<ref name="The Pulitzer Prizes">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
|CitationClass=web }}</ref>
- Pulitzer Prize for Poetry (1990)<ref name="The Pulitzer Prizes_2">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
|CitationClass=web }}</ref>
- Wallace Stevens Award (2007)<ref name="poets.org 2019">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
|CitationClass=web }}</ref>
- Frost Medal (2011)<ref name="Poetry Society of America 2011">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
|CitationClass=web }}</ref>
- Vilcek Prize in Literature (2011)<ref name="Vilcek Foundation 2020">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
|CitationClass=web }}</ref>
- Zbigniew Herbert International Literary Award (2014)<ref name="Fundacja Herberta 1938">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
|CitationClass=web }}</ref>
- Golden Wreath of the Struga Poetry Evenings (2017)<ref name="Struga Poetry Evenings 1938">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
|CitationClass=web }}</ref>
BibliographyEdit
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PoetryEdit
- Collections
- 1967: Template:Cite book<ref name=loccs>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
|CitationClass=web }}</ref>
- 1969: Template:Cite book<ref name=loccs/>
- 1971: Dismantling the Silence<ref name=loccs/>
- 1972: White<ref name=loccs/>
- 1974: Return to a Place Lit by a Glass of Milk<ref name=loccs/>
- 1976: Biography and a Lament<ref name=loccs/>
- 1977: Charon's Cosmology<ref name=loccs/>
- 1978: Brooms: Selected Poems<ref name=loccs/>
- 1978: School for Dark Thoughts<ref name=loccs/>
- 1980: They Forage at Night
- 1980: Classic Ballroom Dances<ref name=loccs/>
- 1982: Austerities<ref name=loccs/>
- 1983: Weather Forecast for Utopia & Vicinity: Poems, 1967–1982<ref name=loccs/>
- 1985: Selected Poems, 1963–1983<ref name=loccs/> (1986 Pulitzer Prize finalist)
- 1986: Unending Blues<ref name=loccs/> (1987 Pulitzer Prize finalist)
- 1989: Pyramids and Sphinxes
- 1989: Nine Poems<ref name=loccs/>
- 1989: The World Doesn't End: Prose Poems<ref name=loccs/> (1990 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry)
- 1990: The Book of Gods and Devils<ref name=loccs/>
- 1992: Hotel Insomnia<ref name=loccs/>
- 1994: A Wedding in Hell: Poems<ref name=loccs/>
- 1995: Frightening Toys<ref name=loccs/>
- 1996: Walking the Black Cat: Poems,<ref name=loccs/> (National Book Award in Poetry finalist)
- 1997: Template:Cite book
- 1999: Jackstraws: Poems<ref name=loccs/> (The New York Times Notable Book of the Year) Template:ISBN
- 1999: Template:Cite book
- 2001: Night Picnic,<ref name=loccs/> Template:ISBN
- 2003: The Voice at 3:00 am: Selected Late and New Poems<ref name=loccs/> Template:ISBN
- 2004: Selected Poems: 1963–2003 (winner of the 2005 International Griffin Poetry Prize)
- 2005: Aunt Lettuce, I Want to Peek Under Your Skirt<ref name=loccs/> (illustrated by Howie Michels)
- 2005: My Noiseless Entourage: Poems<ref name=loccs/> Template:ISBN
- 2008: 60 Poems,<ref name=loccs/> Template:ISBN
- 2008: That Little Something: Poems<ref name=loccs/> Template:ISBN
- 2008: The Monster Loves His Labyrinth: Notebooks, Template:ISBN
- 2010: Template:Cite book
- 2013: Template:Cite book
- 2013: Template:Cite book
- 2015: Template:Cite book
- 2017: Template:Cite book
- 2019: Template:Cite book
- 2022: Template:Cite book
- Translations
- 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>
- 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-fictionEdit
- 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>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
|CitationClass=web }}</ref> Template:Div col end
See alsoEdit
ReferencesEdit
External linksEdit
ProfilesEdit
- Profile and poems of Charles Simic, including audio files, at the Poetry Foundation.
- Profile and poems written and audio at Poetry Archive
- poets.org biography, poems written and audio
- Griffin Poetry Prize biography and video clip
- Hossack, Irene. "Charles Simic". The Literary Encyclopedia; first published May 4, 2006.
WorkEdit
- Charles Simic Poetry, published in Issue Three and Issue Four of The Coffin Factory
- Charles Simic Online Resources, Library of Congress
- Audio recording (.mp3) of Charles Simic reading at the Key West Literary Seminar, 2003
- "Seven Prose Poems" by Charles Simic in The Cafe Irreal Issue 13, February 1, 2005
- 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)
- php? collection/Audio recording 40 Charles Simic Poems read by Thomas Boeck at Voetica.com
- Simic author page and article archive from The New York Review of Books
Interviews and reviewEdit
- Template:Cite journal
- Poetry featured in The Coffin Factory issues 3 and 4
- The Cortland Review interview Template:Webarchive (August 1998)
- "Charles Simic: The Orphan Of Silence"; Doctoral thesis by Goran Mijuk, February 1, 2002
- An Interview with Charles Simic by Dejan Stojanović Serbian Magazine, August 9–23, 1991 (No. 89)
- SESSIONS: Confessions of a Poet Laureate, shorts.nthword.com, April 18, 2011
- 2008 Bomb Magazine discussion between Charles Simic & Tomaž Šalamun
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