Questions About Angels (6 page)

Billy Collins is the author of five books of poetry, including
Picnic, Lightning, The Art of Drowning
—a finalist for the 1996 Lenore Marshall Prize, and
The Apple That Astonished Paris.
Collins's poetry has appeared in anthologies, textbooks, and a variety of periodicals, including
Poetry, American Poetry Review, American Scholar, Harper's, Paris Review
, and
The New Yorker.
His work has been featured in the Pushcart Prize anthology and
The Best American Poetry
for 1992, 1993, and 1997. He has received fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Guggenheim Foundation. He has also won the Bess Hokin Prize, the Frederick Bock Prize, the Oscar Blumenthal Prize, and the Levinson Prize—all awarded by
Poetry
magazine. In 1992, he was chosen by the New York Public Library to serve as a “Literary Lion.” He has given readings at numerous colleges and other institutions. For several years he has conducted summer poetry workshops in Ireland at University College Galway. He is professor of English at Lehman College, CUNY.