Simic, Charles

Simic, Charles

(born May 9, 1938, Belgrade, Yugos.) Yugoslavian-born U.S. poet. When he was 15 years old, he and his mother moved to Paris; a year later they joined his father in the U.S. After graduating from New York University, he translated Yugoslavian poetry into English. His first volume of poetry, What the Grass Says (1967), was recognized for its lively, surrealistic imagery; the collection The World Doesn't End (1989) won a Pulitzer Prize. He also published volumes in prose, including the memoir A Fly in the Soup (2000). He was named U.S. poet laureate in 2007.

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Simic, Charles (1938–  ) poet; born in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. His father escaped from the violence of World War II to New York City, and his family followed him in 1954. Charles studied at New York University (B.A. 1967), and became an editorial assistant for Aperture, a photography magazine (1966–69). He taught at several institutions, notably the University of New Hampshire (1974). He is praised for his translations of the Yugoslavian poets, and for his own evocative and often surrealistic poetry, as in The Book of Gods and Devils (1990).