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Kansas State University
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Manhattan, KS 66506
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Source: Elizabeth Dodd, 785-532-0384, edodd@k-state.edu
News release prepared by: Megan Wilson, 785-532-6415, media@k-state.edu

Monday, Oct. 13, 2008

FORMER U.S. POET LAUREATE CHARLES SIMIC COMING TO K-STATE AS PART OF VISITING WRITERS SERIES

MANHATTAN -- Kansas State University's Visiting Writers Series will feature a public reading by 2007 U.S. Poet Laureate Charles Simic at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 22, in Forum Hall at the K-State Student Union.

The reading is free and open to the public.

Simic was selected the 15th poet laureate of the United States and consultant to the Library of Congress in 2007.

Born in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, in 1938, Simic endured a traumatic childhood during World War II. In 1954 he immigrated with his mother and brother to join his father in the United States, where they lived in and around Chicago until 1958.

His first work was published in 1959 when he was 21, and the first full-length collection of his work was published in 1967. He has published more than 60 books, including 20 books of his own poetry. He also has published numerous translations of French, Serbian, Croatian, Macedonian and Slovenian poetry.

Simic, named a Fellow of the Academy of American Poets in 1998, served as the academy's chancellor in 2000. He was honored by the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1995, and was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1990. His book "Jackstraws" was named Notable Book of the Year by the New York Times in 1998.

Simic also received the 2007 Wallace Stevens Award from the Academy of American Poets. He is an emeritus professor of English at the University of New Hampshire.