America's new poet laureate is Ted Kooser, a professor and retired vice president of Lincoln Benefit Life Insurance Company in Nebraska. Librarian of Congress James H. Billington announced the prestigious appointment on Thursday.
Kooser was born in Ames, Iowa, in 1939, and began working for an insurance company while pursuing a master of arts degree in 1968 from the University of Nebraska. After receiving the degree, he stayed in the insurance business, but remained committed to poetry, writing every morning before going into work.
He often draws from his native Great Plains to depict the sweeping spaces and small-town life of rural America. His verse, which is famous for its simple, straightforward style, has garnered Kooser multiple awards, including two National Endowment for the Arts fellowships and the Pushcart Prize.
Kooser is the author of 10 volumes of poetry including Delights and Shadows and Winter Morning Walks: One Hundred Postcards to Jim Harrison, which won the 2001 Nebraska Book Award for poetry.
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