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Poets on Poetry
The Unemployed Fortune-Teller: Essays and Memoirs
Provides glimpses into the origins of Charles Simic's poetry
144 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1995
3 people are currently reading
97 people want to read
About the author
Charles Simic
265 books474 followersU.S. Poet Laureate, 2007-2008
Dušan Charles Simic was born in Belgrade, former Yugoslavia, on May 9, 1938. Simic’s childhood was complicated by the events of World War II. He moved to Paris with his mother when he was 15; a year later, they joined his father in New York and then moved to Oak Park, a suburb of Chicago, where he graduated from the same high school as Ernest Hemingway. Simic attended the University of Chicago, working nights in an office at the Chicago Sun Times, but was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1961 and served until 1963.
Simic is the author of more than 30 poetry collections, including The World Doesn’t End: Prose Poems (1989), which received the Pulitzer Prize; Jackstraws (1999); Selected Poems: 1963-2003 (2004), which received the International Griffin Poetry Prize; and Scribbled in the Dark (2017). He is also an essayist, translator, editor, and professor emeritus of creative writing and literature at the University of New Hampshire, where he taught for over 30 years.
Simic has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, the Academy of American Poets, and the National Endowment for the Arts. His other honors and awards include the Frost Medal, the Wallace Stevens Award from the Academy of American Poets, and the PEN Translation Prize. He served as the 15th Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress, and was elected as Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets in 2001. Simic has also been elected into the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Dušan Charles Simic was born in Belgrade, former Yugoslavia, on May 9, 1938. Simic’s childhood was complicated by the events of World War II. He moved to Paris with his mother when he was 15; a year later, they joined his father in New York and then moved to Oak Park, a suburb of Chicago, where he graduated from the same high school as Ernest Hemingway. Simic attended the University of Chicago, working nights in an office at the Chicago Sun Times, but was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1961 and served until 1963.
Simic is the author of more than 30 poetry collections, including The World Doesn’t End: Prose Poems (1989), which received the Pulitzer Prize; Jackstraws (1999); Selected Poems: 1963-2003 (2004), which received the International Griffin Poetry Prize; and Scribbled in the Dark (2017). He is also an essayist, translator, editor, and professor emeritus of creative writing and literature at the University of New Hampshire, where he taught for over 30 years.
Simic has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, the Academy of American Poets, and the National Endowment for the Arts. His other honors and awards include the Frost Medal, the Wallace Stevens Award from the Academy of American Poets, and the PEN Translation Prize. He served as the 15th Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress, and was elected as Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets in 2001. Simic has also been elected into the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
August 25, 2014
What a wonderful read! This collection of brilliantly written essays by the poet Simic is a delight. From the beginning to the end, each piece is brilliantly crafted. He writes of his life in the war - as a member of the military police in France. He writes of the tomatoes of his neighbors. He writes his thoughts on food and poetry. Beautiful little pieces - each one different. Each one a a gift waiting to be unwrapped. I loved this. I’m very glad I read it. I bought it new from Amazon in this month.
December 28, 2007
these books are so satisfying to go back to - he writes about history and writing and politics and it sounds like a late-night conversation with your uncle rather than a lecture. He's no bullshit and all bullshit. There are selections from his notebooks, little snippets, that KILL. Simic's Poets on Poetry titles are must-haves.
August 29, 2012
tun to any page and you can't stop reading.
prose from the nobel laureate ain't bad either.
reminds me of eb white but another dimension of experience.
post world war 2 stories from france are phenomenal.
inspires the writer within.
prose from the nobel laureate ain't bad either.
reminds me of eb white but another dimension of experience.
post world war 2 stories from france are phenomenal.
inspires the writer within.
June 9, 2008
Runs the gamut from bawdy peasant poetry to genetically-engineered tomatoes. I feel like I just had a very long and strange conversation with Charles Simic over dinner.
January 14, 2012
I think Simic is so sexy. Sexy philosopher.
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February 18, 2008Still reading this one, actually. The little essays are anecdotal, sometimes, but really informative. I love Simic, so it's hard to complain even when he's imperfect.
July 30, 2008
Essays and memoirs by Charles Simic. Not particularly memorable for me. If you have an interest in Simic, you'd probably like it.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews