Poet Laureate Billy Collins visits Eugene

By Eric Alan

Published November 4, 2013 at 11:35 AM PST

Billy Collins is one of the most accomplished, popular and humorous poets in the United States. He served as the country's Poet Laureate from 2001 through 2003, and won the Poetry Foundation's first Mark Twain Prize for Humor in Poetry. Recently, he's filled in for Garrison Keillor on Writer's Almanacand been a guest on The Colbert Report.He's touring behind a new collection of poems called Aimless Love, and appears at the Downtown Eugene Public Library in a free reading on Tuesday, November 5th. He reads one of his new poems and speaks with Eric Alan about the differences between romantic love and other forms, about humor in poetry, and the experience of being on The Colbert Report.

Eric Alan

Eric Alan is KLCC’s music, arts and culture host. The interviews and performances he hosts air on KLCC as local inserts during programs including The Takeaway, Morning Edition, All Things Considered, Fresh Air, and The World. Previously, he spent seventeen years at Jefferson Public Radio in Ashland, where he was music director and host of the daily music show Open Air. He is a nationally published author and photographer with three books to his credit, ranging from nature spirituality to major league baseball. He also works with National Geographic photographer Dewitt Jones, regularly contributing words and photographs to the project “Celebrate What’s Right with the World.” He is an accomplished lyricist as well, with credits ranging from international recording artists Gypsy Soul to the Oregon Cabaret Theatre. He has served on the board of the Lane County Cultural Coalition, and is a founding board member of Cerro Gordo Land Conservancy.