Charles Simic – Premier Poet

Above: Photo courtesy of the University of New Hampshire

The nation’s newest Poet Laureate already had quite a resumé: 18 books of poetry, one Pulitzer Prize (for “The World Doesn’t End”), finalist for the National Book Award for Poetry (for “Walking the Black Cat”) and a Jane Kenyon Award from the New Hampshire Writer’s Project for “A Wedding in Hell.” Not bad for a Yugoslavian immigrant for whom English is a second tongue. The Stafford resident, who taught at UNH for more than three decades, follows in the giant footprints of two other Granite Staters who have held the top poet title, Donald Hall and Maxine Kumin — make that three if you count Robert Frost.