Ted Kooser
"Ted Kooser is a major poetic voice for rural and small-town America.... His verse reaches beyond his native region to touch on universal themes in accessible ways."
—Librarian of Congress James H. Billington
United States Poet Laureate Ted Kooser is a retired life insurance executive who lives on acreage near the village of Garland, Nebraska, with his wife, Kathleen Rutledge. He has an appointment as Visiting Professor at the University of Nebraska, where he teaches classes in poetry and nonfiction writing. His poems have appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, Hudson Review, Antioch Review, Kenyon Review and dozens of other literary journals. His memoir, Local Wonders: Seasons in the Bohemian Alps, a Barnes & Noble Discover finalist in nonfiction, also won The 2002 Friends of American Writers Award and ForeWord Magazine’s Gold Medal recognition for autobiographical writing. He has won the Hugo Prize from Poetry Northwest, the Kunitz Prize from Columbia, the Boatwright Prize from Shenandoah, as well as two National Endowment writing fellowships. He is the author of eight full-length collections of poetry, nine chapbooks and special editions, and Braided Creek, a collaboration with Jim Harrison, published by Copper Canyon Press in 2003.
Author's Website
For more on Ted Kooser:
Chicago Tribune Article
StarTribune Interview
Poetry Foundation Audio Clip of "Applesauce"
