Ted Kooser
{{short description|American poet (born 1939)}}
{{Use American English|date=December 2024}}{{Use mdy dates|date=December 2024}}
Theodore J. Kooser (born April 25, 1939)http://www.ameshistory.org/content/theodore-j-kooser is an American poet. He won the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry in 2005. He served as Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004 to 2006.{{cite web | title=Poet Laureate Timeline: 2001-present | url=https://www.loc.gov/poetry/laureate-2001-present.html | publisher=Library of congress| year=2009 | access-date=2009-01-01}} Kooser was one of the first poets laureate selected from the Great Plains,{{Cite web|url=http://writersalmanac.org/bookshelf/ted-kooser/|title=Ted Kooser|last=Biles|first=Joy|website=The Writers Almanac}} and is known for his conversational style of poetry.{{Cite book|title=Can Poetry Matter?: Essays on Poetry and American Culture|last=Gioia|first=Dana|publisher=Gray wolf Press|year=1992}}
Biography
=Early life=
Ted Kooser was born in Ames, Iowa, on April 25, 1939. Growing up, Kooser attended Ames Public Schools for elementary and middle school. When Kooser arrived at Ames High School, his interest diverted from the library, and it went to cars. He joined the Nightcrawlers Car Club and became secretary of the group in 1956. His motivation for writing in high school can be in part credited to one of his teachers, Mary McNally, who encouraged him to continue writing essays and poems that reflected his life.
= Education =
Kooser graduated from Ames High School with a class of 175 students and enrolled at Iowa State University, the alma mater of his uncles. He began writing short nonfiction stories for the Iowa State student literary magazine. He also joined the Iowa State Writer's Round Table, which he credits for fine-tuning his writing skills; Iowa Senator Tom Harkin was also a part of the group. In 1961, Kooser moved to Marshalltown, Iowa, to student teach English classes. The following year he graduated with a BS in English education from Iowa State University and moved to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to live with his parents. He was offered a graduate readership opportunity at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and in 1963, he and his wife moved to Lincoln, Nebraska.{{cite web |url=https://nebraskaauthors.org/authors/ted-kooser|title=Ted Kooser |publisher=Nebraska Authors}} After winning the Vreeland Award for poetry in 1964, he soon after lost his graduate readership from the University for his poor GPA. In 1967, he received his MA from Nebraska.{{Cite book|title=The Life and Poetry Of Ted Kooser|last=Stillwell|first=Mary|publisher=Bison Books|year=2013|location=Lincoln|pages=1–60}}
=Career=
After earning his MA, Kooser worked at Bankers Life Nebraska.{{cite web |url=https://nebraskaauthors.org/authors/ted-kooser|title=Ted Kooser |publisher=Nebraska Authors}} He eventually went on to work for Lincoln Benefit Life (a subsidiary of Allstate), an insurance company, for 35 years before retiring as vice president at the age of 60.{{cite book|author=Various|title=Good Poems, American Places|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r4me3_4ndTQC&pg=PT237|date=14 April 2011|publisher=Penguin Group US|isbn=978-1-101-47619-2|page=237}} He wrote for an hour and a half before work every morning, and by the time he retired, Kooser had published seven books of poetry. Kooser taught as a Presidential Professor in the English department of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and is currently a Professor Emeritus.{{cite web |url=https://directory.unl.edu/people/tkooser2 |publisher=University of Nebraska Lincoln|title=Ted Kooser | Directory | University of Nebraska–Lincoln }}
On August 12, 2004, he was named Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry by the Librarian of Congress to serve a term from October 2004 through May 2005.
In April 2005, Theodore J. Kooser was appointed to serve a second term as Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry. During that same week, Kooser received the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for his book Delights & Shadows{{Cite web|url=https://www.coppercanyonpress.org/books/delights-shadows-by-ted-kooser/|title = Delights & Shadows by Ted Kooser}} (Copper Canyon Press, 2004). Edward Hirsch wrote: "There is a sense of quiet amazement at the core of all Kooser's work, but it especially seems to animate his new collection of poems, Delights & Shadows."
Kooser's most recent books are Kindest Regards: New and Selected Poems and Red Stilts (2020).
He founded and hosted the newspaper project "American Life in Poetry".{{Cite web|last=Kooser|first=Ted|title=American Life in Poetry|url=https://www.americanlifeinpoetry.org/|access-date=2020-11-03|website=www.americanlifeinpoetry.org}} In 2020, Kooser chose Kwame Dawes, a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, to be his successor as of January 1, 2021.{{Cite web|last=KHGI|date=2020-09-09|title=Kwame Dawes named successor for national "American Life in Poetry" column|url=https://nebraska.tv/news/local/kwame-dawes-named-successor-for-national-american-life-in-poetry-column|access-date=2020-11-03|website=KHGI}} Kooser also edits the Ted Kooser Contemporary Poetry series published by the University of Nebraska Press.
= Midwest Poetry Renaissance =
Ted Kooser was part of the Midwest Poetry Renaissance in the 1960s and 1970s. The Midwest Poetry Renaissance drew on elements of Rural America through a five-state swath of the Great Plains region. Poets of the Midwest were respected among artists throughout the country due to being informed of larger societal forces, such as the distrust of a media-driven culture.
More small presses opened up in that time, and Midwestern poets began publishing more work. Warren Woessner regards the catalyst of the MPR to be the anthology [http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8531500-heartland Heartland] in 1967. The movement began to develop after that point, along with the works of Ted and other poets such as Victor Contoski, Mak Vinz, David Steinglass, Gary Gildner, James Hazard, Greg Kuzma, Judith Minty, and Kathy Weigner (as well as many others) who exemplified the rural subject matter and conversational tone. Most of the poets were in their twenties or early thirties and published their first books.
Ted was in his late twenties and thirties during the decade the Midwest Poetry Renaissance occurred. He published his first book through the University of Nebraska Press at age 30, titled "[https://www.amazon.com/OFFICIAL-ENTRY-BLANK-Ted-Kooser/dp/B00D37ZWP0 Official Entry Blank]." Ted's first full-length book was already out of print by the early 1970s, at which time he became more of a small press poet like many other poets in the Midwest. Ted continued to receive publication of individual poems within anthologies and published several more books in small presses. He also began to edit The New Salt Creek Reader, which had six anthologies by 1974.
According to Warren Woessner, a poet during the Midwest Poetry Renaissance, the movement ended in 1975 with the publication of Heartland II.{{Cite journal|last=Woessner|first=Warren|year=2005|title=Let Us Now Praise Rusty Tractors – Ted Kooser and the Midwest Poetry Renaissance|url=http://libmetafind1a.unl.edu:50081/ebsco-e-b/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=941899fa-ab09-4519-9078-444185b399d9%40sessionmgr104&vid=1&hid=113|journal=Midwest Quarterly|volume=6|page=5}}
= Poetic Style =
Ted Kooser is known for his conversational style of poetry that is accessible to a nonliterary public. Critic Dana Gioia, in his book [http://danagioia.com/essays/reviews-and-authors-notes/ted-kooser-the-predicament-of-popular-poetry/ Can Poetry Matter?], describes Kooser's style as "drawn from common speech, with subject matter common to the Midwest." Kooser's early and contemporary work involves both troubles for Midwesterners, and observations from everyday life.{{Cite web|url=https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poets/detail/ted-kooser|title=Ted Kooser|website=Poetry Foundation|date=14 August 2021}} Recurring themes include love, family, place, and time, but he does not consider himself a regional poet.
Personal life
Kooser lives on an acreage near the village of Garland, Nebraska.{{cite book|author=Various|title=Good Poems, American Places|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r4me3_4ndTQC&pg=PT237|year=2011|publisher=Penguin Group US|isbn=978-1-101-47619-2|page=237}} Kooser has served on the Lincoln Library Board. He was founding president of The Nebraska Literary Heritage Association.{{cite web |url=https://nebraskaauthors.org/authors/ted-kooser|title=Ted Kooser |publisher=Nebraska Authors}}
Kooser is married to Kathleen Rutledge, former editor of the Lincoln Journal Star. They have one son and two grandchildren.{{Cite web|url=http://www.tedkooser.net/index.shtml|title=Ted Kooser {{!}} Home|last=Department|first=UNL {{!}} English|website=www.tedkooser.net|access-date=2016-11-21}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.tedkooser.net/about.shtml#data|title=Ted Kooser {{!}} About|last=Department|first=UNL {{!}} English|website=www.tedkooser.net|access-date=2016-11-22}}{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3oi_6oxZfGoC&q=ted+kooser&pg=PP13|title=The Poetry Home Repair Manual: Practical Advice for Beginning Poets|last=Kooser|first=Ted|year=2007|publisher=U of Nebraska Press|isbn=978-0803259782|language=en}}
Awards & Honors<ref>{{Cite web |last=Network |first=University of Nebraska-Lincoln {{!}} Web Developer |title=Ted Kooser {{!}} Department of English {{!}} University of Nebraska–Lincoln |url=http://www.unl.edu/english/ted-kooser |access-date=2016-11-21 |website=www.unl.edu}}</ref>
| class="wikitable"
!Title !Year(s) |
| Two writing fellowships for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA)
|1976 & 1984 |
| Pushcart Prize
|1984, 2005, 2009 & 2012 |
| Named United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry
|2004 & 2005 |
| Delights & Shadows named as "Best Book of the Year"
|2004 |
| Pulitzer Prize for Poetry (Delights & Shadows)
|2005 |
| The Best American Essays
|2005 |
| University of Nebraska Presidential Professorship
|2005, 2006 & 2007 |
| Selected on the three-person jury for Pulitzer Prize for Poetry
|2006 & 2011 |
| Dedication of Ted Kooser Elementary School
|2009 |
| New York Times Best Illustrated Book, for House Held Up By Trees
|2012 |
| Mark Twain Award from The Society for the Study of Midwestern Literature
|2013 |
| Independent Publisher's Gold Medal Award for The Wheeling Year
|2015 |
Bibliography
=Books=
- {{cite book |last=Kooser |first=Ted |title=Official Entry Blank |url=https://archive.org/details/officialentrybla0000koos |url-access=registration |year=1969}}
- {{cite book |last=Kooser |first=Ted |title=Grass County |year=1971 |author-mask=2}}
- {{cite book |last=Kooser |first=Ted |title=Twenty Poems |year=1973 |author-mask=2}}
- {{cite book |last=Kooser |first=Ted |title=A Local Habitation and a Name |year=1974 |author-mask=2}}
- {{cite book |last=Kooser |first=Ted |title=Not Coming to Be Barked At |year=1976 |author-mask=2}}
- {{cite book |last=Kooser |first=Ted |title=Sure Signs: New and Selected Poems |year=1980 |author-mask=2}}
- {{cite book |last=Kooser |first=Ted |title=One World at a Time |year=1985 |author-mask=2}}
- {{cite book |last=Kooser |first=Ted |title=The Blizzard Voices |year=1986 |author-mask=2}}
- {{cite book |last=Kooser |first=Ted |title=Weather Central |year=1994 |author-mask=2}}
- {{cite book |last=Kooser |first=Ted |title=A Book of Things |year=1995 |author-mask=2}}
- {{cite book |last=Kooser |first=Ted |title=Riding with Colonel Carter |year=1999 |author-mask=2}}
- {{cite book |last=Kooser |first=Ted |title=Winter Morning Walks: One Hundred Postcards to Jim Harrison |year=2001 |author-mask=2}}
- {{cite book |last=Kooser |first=Ted |title=Braided Creek: A Conversation in Poetry |publisher=Copper Canyon Press |year=2003 |author-mask=2}}
- {{cite book |last=Kooser |first=Ted |title=Delights and Shadows |publisher=Copper Canyon Press |year=2004 |author-mask=2}}
- {{cite book |last=Kooser |first=Ted |title=Local Wonders: Seasons in the Bohemian Alps |year=2004 |author-mask=2}}
- {{cite book |last=Kooser |first=Ted |title=Flying at Night: Poems 1965–1985 |year=2005 |author-mask=2}}
- {{cite book |last=Kooser |first=Ted |title=Lights on a Ground of Darkness: An Evocation of Place and Time |year=2005 |author-mask=2}}
- {{cite book |last=Kooser |first=Ted |title=The Poetry Home Repair Manual: Practical Advice for Beginning Poets |year=2007 |author-mask=2}}
- {{cite book |last=Kooser |first=Ted |title=Valentines |publisher=University of Nebraska Press |year=2008 |author-mask=2}}
- {{cite book |last=Kooser |first=Ted |title=Bag in the Wind |year=2010 |author-mask=2}}
- {{cite book |last=Kooser |first=Ted |title=Pursuing Blackhawk |publisher=Cedar Creek Press, Mason City |year=2012 |author-mask=2}}
- {{cite book |last=Kooser |first=Ted |title=House Held Up by Trees |year=2012 |author-mask=2}}
- {{cite book |last=Kooser |first=Ted |title=Splitting an Order |publisher=Copper Canyon Press |year=2014 |author-mask=2}}
- {{cite book |last=Kooser |first=Ted |title=The Bell in the Bridge |year=2016 |author-mask=2}}
- {{cite book |last=Kooser |first=Ted |title=Kindest Regards: New and Selected Poems |publisher=Copper Canyon Press |year=2018 |author-mask=2}}
- {{cite book |last=Kooser |first=Ted |title=Red Stilts |publisher=Copper Canyon Press |year=2020 |author-mask=2}}
- {{cite book |last=Kooser |first=Ted |title=Cotton Candy: Poems Dipped Out of the Air |publisher=University of Nebraska Press |year=2022 |author-mask=2}}
- {{cite book |last=Kooser |first=Ted |title=Raft |publisher=Copper Canyon Press |year=2024 |author-mask=2}}
= Poems =
| class='wikitable sortable' width='90%' |
| |Title
!|Year !|First published !|Reprinted/collected |
|---|
| Carrie
|1978 |Kooser, Ted (Fall 1978). "Carrie". Prairie Schooner. 52 (4). p. 256. |Kooser, Ted (1980). "Abandoned Farmhouse". "Sure Signs". University of Pittsburgh Press |Kooser, Ted (1980). "Carrie". Sure Signs. University of Pittsburgh Press. |
| A Birthday Card
|1983 |Kooser, Ted (November 1983). "A Birthday Card". Poetry. p. 70. | |
| The Mouse
|1983 |Kooser, Ted (November 1983). "The Mouse". Poetry. p. 72. | |
| Lobocraspis Griseifusa
|1995 |Kooser, Ted (May 1995). "Lobocraspis Griseifusa". Poetry. p. 86. | |
| New Moon
|1995 |Kooser, Ted (July 1995). "New Moon". Poetry. p. 86. | |
| The Early Bird
|2003 |Kooser, Ted (May 2003). "The Early Bird". Poetry Magazine. p. 75. | |
| At the Cancer Clinic
|2004 |Kooser, Ted (May 2004). "At the Cancer Clinic". Delights and Shadows. Copper Canyon Press. |Kooser, Ted (2012). "At the Cancer Clinic". The Writer's Almanac. 2012. |
| Father
|2004 |Kooser, Ted (May 2004). "Father". Delights and Shadows. Copper Canyon Press. |Kooser, Ted (2004). "Father". The Writer's Almanac. 2012. |
| Skater
|2004 |Kooser, Ted (May 2004). "Skater". Delights and Shadows. Copper Canyon Press. |Kooser, Ted (2004). "Skater". Shenandoah. 65 (1). |
| Tattoo
|2004 |Kooser, Ted (June 2003). "Tattoo". Poetry. p. 150. |Kooser, Ted (May 2004). "Tattoo". Delights and Shadows. Copper Canyon Press. |
| Flying at Night
|2005 |Kooser, Ted (January 2005). "Flying at Night". Flying at Night. |
| Lantern
|2011 |{{cite journal |last=Kooser |first=Ted |date=Fall 2011 |title=Lantern |journal=The Kenyon Review |volume=33 |issue=4 |url=http://www.kenyonreview.org/journal/fall-2011/selections/lantern/ |access-date=2015-04-01}} |{{cite book |last=Kooser |first=Ted |editor-last=Henderson |editor-first=Bill |title=The Pushcart Prize XXXVII : best of the small presses 2013 |publisher=Pushcart Press |date=2013 |pages=339 |chapter=Lantern}} |
References
External links
- [http://www.tedkooser.net/ Official website]
- [https://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/kooser/ Ted Kooser: Online Resources from the Library of Congress]
- [http://www.americanlifeinpoetry.org/ American Life in Poetry, Kooser's syndicated newspaper feature]
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20061209054600/http://www.guernicamag.com/interviews/152/the_crossing_over/ Author interview in Guernica Magazine (Guernicamag.com)]
- [https://web.archive.org/web/19980115005503/http://mockingbird.creighton.edu/NCW/kooser.htm Ted Kooser biographical summary]
- [https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A26665-2005Apr4.html Linton Weeks, Washington Post, "Poet Laureate's Prized Words", April 5, 2005, page C1]
- [http://www.valpo.edu/english/vpr/purdyreviewkooser.html A review of Delights & Shadows] by Ted Kooser.
- {{Fresh Air episode|url_date_arg=04-Apr-2005|date=4 April 2005}}
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20061208044930/http://net.unl.edu/swi/media2/extras/kooser_060206_MSTR.mov Television Profile of Ted Kooser] – NET Television
- [https://www.postandcourier.com/features/qa-ted-kooser-poet-raft/article_949faeb4-c930-11ef-b512-0387e6d5dfd7.html John Cusatis, Charleston Post & Courier, Q & A with Ted Kooser, January 5, 2025]
{{LOC Poets Laureate}}
{{PulitzerPrize PoetryAuthors 2001–2025}}
{{Authority control}}
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Category:American poets laureate
Category:Artists from Ames, Iowa
Category:Writers from Lincoln, Nebraska
Category:Pulitzer Prize for Poetry winners
Category:University of Nebraska–Lincoln alumni
Category:People from Seward County, Nebraska