Literary figures/poets

Our new U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins. His new collection of poems is Sailing Alone Around the Room (Random House). His other collections include Picnic, Lightning (Univ of Pittsburgh), The Art of Drowning (Univ of Pittsburgh Press), and Questions about Angels (William Morrow & Co). John Updike says of Collins' poetry, "Billy Collins writes lovely poems...

Former poet laureate Robert Pinsky reads a poem that he has turned to at this time.

Former poet laureate Robert Hass also reads a poem.

Poet Billy Collins has just been appointed the next Poet Laureate. His books include Picnic, Lightning (University of Pittsburgh Press), The Art of Drowning, (University of Pittsburgh Press), and Questions about Angels (William Morrow & Co.), which was selected as a winner of the National Poetry Series Competition in 1990. John Updike says of Collins' poetry, "Billy Collins writes lovely poems...

Poet Billy Collins reads his poem This Much I Do Remember.

Our classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz joins us to talk about his new book of poems, “Cairo Traffic.” (University of Chicago Press) Lloyd is professor of English at the University of Massachusetts Boston and writes about classical music for the Boston Phoenix. In 1994, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.

Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai (ya-HOO-da AH-muh-kye, rhymes with pie) died Friday at the age of 76, and we feature a 1991 interview from the archives. Amichai was a celebrated poet whose subjects were love and loss, and more recently, aging and mortality. The New York Times wrote that he had a “gift for poeticizing the particular: the localized object or image in everyday life.” (originally aired 2/27/91)

Our classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz turns off the turntable and reads us a poem from his new book, Cairo Traffic.

Associate curator at The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, Russell Ferguson He curated the exhibit “In Memory of My Feelings: Frank O’Hara and American Art,” (there’s also a companion book). Frank O’Hara was part of a small group of poets in New York City in the 1950s and 60s, influenced by the Abstract Expressionist painters of that time, including Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning. O’Hara died in 1966 after being struck by a jeep. Also, poet David Lehman (“LEE-man”), author of “the Last Avant-Garde: The Making of the New York School of Poets” (Anchor Books)

Classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz is also a poet. He reviews “The Voice of the Poet” (Random House) a collection of poets reading their own work on audio tape.