Serbian-born American poet (1938–2023)
Dušan Simić (
Serbian Cyrillic : Душан Симић , pronounced
[dǔʃan sǐːmitɕ] ; May 9, 1938 – January 9, 2023), known as Charles Simic , was a Serbian American poet and co-poetry 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
Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 2007.
[1]
Biography
Early years
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."
[2]
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.
[3] 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.
Career
Simic began to make a name for himself in the early to mid-1970s as a literary minimalist, writing terse, imagistic poems.
[4] 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."
[5]
He was a professor of American literature and creative writing at
University of New Hampshire beginning in 1973
[6]
[7] and lived in
Strafford ,
New Hampshire .
[8] Simic wrote on such diverse topics as jazz, art, and philosophy.
[9] He was influenced by
Emily Dickinson ,
Pablo Neruda , and
Fats Waller .
[10] 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.
[11]
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 .
[12]
Simic was selected by
James Billington , Librarian of Congress, to be the fifteenth
Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress , succeeding
Donald Hall . In choosing Simic as the poet laureate, Billington cited "the rather stunning and original quality of his poetry".
[13]
In 2011, Simic was the recipient of the
Frost Medal , presented annually for "lifetime achievement in poetry".
[14]
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.
[15]
Personal life and death
Simic married fashion designer Helene Dubin in 1964, and their union produced two children. In 1971, he became an American citizen.
[16] Simic died of complications of
dementia on January 9, 2023, at age 84.
[17]
[18]
Awards
Bibliography
Poetry
Collections
1967: What the grass says : poems . San Francisco: Kayak. 1967.
[29]
1969: Somewhere among us a stone is taking notes . 1969.
[29]
1971: Dismantling the Silence
[29]
1972: White
[29]
1974: Return to a Place Lit by a Glass of Milk
[29]
1976: Biography and a Lament
[29]
1977: Charon's Cosmology
[29]
1978: Brooms: Selected Poems
[29]
1978: School for Dark Thoughts
[29]
1980: They Forage at Night
1980: Classic Ballroom Dances
[29]
1982: Austerities
[29]
1983: Weather Forecast for Utopia & Vicinity: Poems, 1967–1982
[29]
1985: Selected Poems, 1963–1983
[29] (1986 Pulitzer Prize finalist)
1986: Unending Blues
[29] (1987 Pulitzer Prize finalist)
1989: Pyramids and Sphinxes
1989: Nine Poems
[29]
1989: The World Doesn't End: Prose Poems
[29] (1990
Pulitzer Prize for Poetry )
1990: The Book of Gods and Devils
[29]
1992: Hotel Insomnia
[29]
1994: A Wedding in Hell: Poems
[29]
1995: Frightening Toys
[29]
1996: Walking the Black Cat: Poems ,
[29] (National Book Award in Poetry finalist)
1997:
Looking for Trouble: Selected Early and More Recent Poems . Faber and Faber. 1997.
ISBN
0-571-19233-5 .
1999: Jackstraws: Poems
[29] (
The New York Times Notable Book of the Year)
ISBN
0-15-601098-4
1999: Simic, Charles (1999).
Selected Early Poems .
ISBN
978-0-8076-1456-3 .
2001: Night Picnic ,
[29]
ISBN
0-15-100630-X
2003: The Voice at 3:00 am: Selected Late and New Poems
[29]
ISBN
0-15-603073-X
2004: Selected Poems: 1963–2003 , 2004 (winner of the 2005 International
Griffin Poetry Prize )
2005: Aunt Lettuce, I Want to Peek under Your Skirt
[29] (illustrated by Howie Michels)
2005: My Noiseless Entourage: Poems ,
[29]
ISBN
0-15-101214-8
2008: 60 Poems ,
[29]
ISBN
0-15-603564-2
2008: That Little Something: Poems ,
[29]
ISBN
0-15-603539-1
2008: The Monster Loves His Labyrinth: Notebooks ,
ISBN
1-931337-40-3
2010: Master of Disguises, Poems . Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 2010.
ISBN
978-0-547-50453-7 .
2013: New and Selected Poems: 1962-2012 . Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 2013.
ISBN
978-0-547-92830-2 .
2013: Selected Early Poems . George Braziller Inc. 2013.
ISBN
978-0-8076-1620-8 .
2015: The Lunatic . HarperCollins/Ecco. 2015.
ISBN
978-0-06-236474-6 .
2017: Scribbled in the Dark . HarperCollins/Ecco. 2017.
ISBN
978-0-06-266117-3 .
2019: Come closer and listen : new poems . New York: Ecco. 2019.
ISBN
978-0-06-290846-9 .
2022: No Land in Sight: Poems . Knopf. 2022.
ISBN
978-0-593-53493-9 .
Translations
1970:
Ivan V. Lalić , Fire Gardens
[29]
1970:
Vasko Popa , The Little Box: Poems
[29]
1970: Four Modern Yugoslav Poets:
Ivan V. Lalić ,
Branko Miljkovic ,
Milorad Pavić ,
Ljubomir Simović
[29]
1979:
Vasko Popa , Homage to the Lame Wolf: Selected Poems
[29]
1983: Co-translator, Slavko Mihalić, Atlantis
[29]
1987:
Tomaž Šalamun , Selected Poems
[29]
1987:
Ivan V. Lalić , Roll Call of Mirrors
[29]
1989: Aleksandar Ristović, Some Other Wine or Light
[29]
1991:
Slavko Janevski , Bandit Wind
[29]
1992:
Novica Tadić , Night Mail: Selected Poems
[29]
1992: Horse Has Six Legs: Contemporary Serbian Poetry
[29]
1999: Aleksandar Ristović, Devil's Lunch
[29]
2003: Radmila Lazić, A Wake for the Living
[29]
2004:
Günter Grass , The Günter Grass Reader
[29]
2019:
Vasko Popa , Selected Poems
[30]
List of poems
Title
Year
First published
Reprinted/collected
Left out of the Bible
2021
Simic, Charles (May 31, 2021).
"Left out of the Bible" . The New Yorker . 97 (14): 45.
Windy day
2021
Simic, Charles (September 20, 2021).
"Windy day" . The New Yorker . 97 (29): 65.
Non-fiction
1985: The Uncertain Certainty: Interviews, Essays, and Notes on Poetry
[29]
1990: Wonderful Words, Silent Truth: Essays on Poetry and a Memoir
[29]
1992: Dime-Store Alchemy: The Art of
Joseph Cornell
[29]
1994: The Unemployed Fortune-Teller: Essays and Memoirs
[29]
1997: Orphan Factory: Essays and Memoirs
[29]
2000: A Fly in the Soup: Memoirs
[29]
2003: The Metaphysician in the Dark
[29] (University of Michigan Press, Poets on Poetry Series)
2006:
Memory Piano . University of Michigan Press, Poets on Poetry Series. 2006.
ISBN
978-0-472-06940-8 .
2008: The Renegade: Writings on Poetry and a Few Other Things
[29]
2015: The Life of Images: Selected Prose
[31]
See also
References
^
"Poet Laureate Timeline: 2001–present" . Library of Congress. 2009. Archived from
the original on August 5, 2010. Retrieved January 1, 2009 .
^
Charles Simic profile
Archived April 8, 2017, at the
Wayback Machine , CortlandReview.com. Retrieved April 21, 2017.
^ Govea, Javier (January 10, 2023).
"Charles Simic, 84" . Oak Park . Retrieved January 15, 2023 .
^ Rodriguez, J. Matos (2005). Unmothered Americas: Poetry and Universality (On Charles Simic, Alejandra Pizarnik, and Giannina Braschi . New York: Columbia University Academic Commons.
^ Simic, Charles (ed.) (1992) The Best American Poetry 1992 , Charles Scribner's Sons p xv
ISBN
978-0-684-19501-8
^ Garner, Dwight (January 9, 2023).
"Charles Simic, Pulitzer-Winning Poet and U.S. Laureate, Dies at 84" . The New York Times .
ISSN
0362-4331 . Retrieved January 28, 2023 .
^ Poets, Academy of American.
"About Charles Simic | Academy of American Poets" . poets.org . Retrieved January 28, 2023 .
^
"Charles Simic" . Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA . Retrieved January 28, 2023 .
^ Chinen, Nate (January 10, 2008).
"A Breezy Exchange Between Old Friends (Jazz and Poetry)" . The New York Times .
ISSN
0362-4331 . Retrieved April 19, 2020 .
^ Williams, Eric.
"A Conversation with Charles Simic" .
^ Simic, Charles (February 4, 2014).
"Charles Simic" . Charles Simic . Retrieved January 31, 2018 .
^
"Charles Simic Receives The Wallace Stevens Award" (Press release). Academy of American Poets. August 2, 2007. Archived from
the original on June 25, 2008. Retrieved January 22, 2016 .
^ Motoko Rich (August 2, 2007).
"Charles Simic, Surrealist With Dark View, Is Named Poet Laureate" . The New York Times . Retrieved January 22, 2016 .
^
"Announcing the 2011 Frost Medalist, Charles Simic" . Poetry Society of America . Retrieved April 18, 2020 .
^
"Guide to the Charles Simic Papers, 1958-2018" . Library . March 7, 2008. Retrieved January 28, 2023 .
^
"Charles Simic, Pulitzer prize-winning poet, dies at age 84" . The Guardian . January 10, 2023. Retrieved January 10, 2023 .
^ Garner, Dwight (January 9, 2023).
"Charles Simic, Pulitzer-Winning Poet and U.S. Laureate, Dies at 84" . The New York Times . Retrieved January 9, 2023 .
^
"Umro američki pesnik srpskog porekla Čarls Simić" . Telegraf. January 9, 2023. Retrieved January 9, 2023 .
^
"1980 Literary Award Winner" . PEN America . November 2, 2012. Retrieved January 10, 2023 .
^
a
b
"Laureate of the Zbigniew Herbert Literary Award 2014" . Fundacja Herberta . May 9, 1938. Retrieved January 10, 2023 .
^
"Charles Simic" . MacArthur Foundation . August 9, 2022. Retrieved January 10, 2023 .
^
"Simic Finalist 1986" . The Pulitzer Prizes . Retrieved January 10, 2023 .
^
"Simic Finalist 1987" . The Pulitzer Prizes . Retrieved January 10, 2023 .
^
"Simic Winner 1990" . The Pulitzer Prizes . Retrieved January 10, 2023 .
^
"Charles Simic Receives the Wallace Stevens Award" . poets.org . April 4, 2019. Retrieved January 10, 2023 .
^
"Announcing the 2011 Frost Medalist, Charles Simic" . Poetry Society of America . January 24, 2011. Retrieved January 10, 2023 .
^
"Charles Simic" . Vilcek Foundation . May 15, 2020. Retrieved January 10, 2023 .
^
"Charles Simic" . Struga Poetry Evenings . May 9, 1938. Retrieved January 10, 2023 .
^
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"Former Poet Laureate Charles Simic" . Library of Congress.
^ Popa, Vasko; Simic, Charles (2019). Vasko Popa : selected poems . New York.
ISBN
978-1-68137-336-2 .
OCLC
1037899168 . {{
cite book }}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (
link )
^ Garner, Dwight (March 31, 2015).
"Review: Charles Simic Displays a Poet's Voice and His Passions" . The New York Times .
External links
Profiles
Work
Interviews and review
Mark Ford (Spring 2005).
"Charles Simic, The Art of Poetry No. 90" . The Paris Review .
Poetry featured in The Coffin Factory issues 3 and 4
The Cortland Review interview
Archived April 8, 2017, at the
Wayback Machine (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
International National Academics Artists People Other