Billy Collins Named Literary Award Winner

Former US Poet Laureate Billy Collins is this year’s Nashville Public Library Literary Award recipient. This is the seventh year the library has honored an author as part of its effort to spur public interest in literature.

Collins is a frequent guest on A Prairie Home Companion. In an appearance last year, he read from his poem called “Adage.”

“…You look at me through the halo of the last candle
and tell me love is an ill wind
that has no turning, a road that blows no good,
but I am here to remind you,
as our shadows tremble on the walls,
that love is the early bird who is better late than never.”

Collins will accept his award and deliver a public lecture in November. He’ll also judge a poetry contest for Davidson County teenagers. In the meantime, the library is offering a poem-a-day subscription through its website and is encouraging patrons to make videos that incorporate Collins’ poetry.