Simic << SIHM ihch >>, Charles (1938-2023), a Yugoslav-born American poet, was appointed poet laureate of the United States for 2007-2008. He also won the 1990 Pulitzer Prize for poetry for his collection The World Doesn’t End (1989).
Simic typically wrote short poems in direct, accessible language. He was born on May 9, 1938, in Belgrade, in what was then the Yugoslav republic of Serbia. He grew up amid the violence of World War II (1939-1945). Many of his poems reflect the stress of the poverty, destruction, and hunger he experienced during the war. Much of his work focuses on the lack of spirituality in modern life. Simic’s poetry varies from the grimly realistic to the philosophic, often enhanced with a wry, comic style.
Simic’s first book of poetry was What the Grass Says (1967). His other major collections include Somewhere Among Us a Stone Is Taking Notes (1969), Dismantling the Silence (1971), School for Dark Thoughts (1978), Unending Blues (1986), The Book of Gods and Devils (1990), Hotel Insomnia (1992), Walking the Black Cat (1996), The Voice at 3:00 a.m.: Selected Late & New Poems (2003), My Noiseless Entourage (2005), and That Little Something (2008). His New and Selected Poems: 1962-2012 was published in 2013. Later collections include The Lunatic: Poems (2015), Scribbled in the Dark (2017), and Come Closer and Listen (2019).
In addition to his own poetry, Simic translated the work of many modern Yugoslav and Serbian poets. He edited and translated The Horse Has Six Legs: An Anthology of Serbian Poetry (2010). His best-known prose work is Dime-Store Alchemy (1992), a tribute to the American artist Joseph Cornell. Simic’s essay collections include Orphan Factory (1997) and The Metaphysician in the Dark (2003). His The Life of Images: Selected Prose was published in 2015.
Simic immigrated with his mother to the United States in 1954 to join his father, who had left Yugoslavia several years earlier. Simic received a B.A. degree from New York University in 1966. He became a United States citizen in 1971. Simic began teaching at the University of New Hampshire in 1973 and taught there for more than 30 years. He died on Jan. 9, 2023.
