KOOSER, Theodore 1939-

(Ted Kooser)

PERSONAL: Born April, 1939, in Ames, IA; son of Ted, Sr. (a merchant) and Vera (Moser) Kooser; married Diana Tressler (a teacher), November 17, 1962 (divorced); married Kathleen Rutledge (an editor), September 24, 1977; children: (first marriage) Jeffrey Charles. Ethnicity: "German-American." Education: Iowa State University, B.S., 1962; University of Nebraska, M.A., 1968. Politics: Democrat. Religion: Unitarian. Hobbies and other interests: Painting, drawing.

ADDRESSES: Home—1820 Branched Oak Road, Garland, NE 68360-9303. Offıce—214 Andrews Hall, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE 68588-0333. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Bankers Life Nebraska (insurance firm), Lincoln, underwriter, beginning in 1964; New Business, Lincoln, NE, second vice-president, 1972; Lincoln Benefit Life Co., Lincoln, NE, underwriter, 1973-84, second vice-president for marketing, 1984-92, vice-president for public relations, 1992-99; University of Nebraska, Lincoln, adjunct professor of writing, 1970-95, visiting professor of creative writing, 2000—.

MEMBER: Academy of American Poets, Poetry Society of America, Society of Midland Authors.

AWARDS, HONORS: John H. Vreeland Award for creative writing, 1964; National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, 1976, 1984; Society of Midland Authors Prize, 1980, for Sure Signs; Stanly Kunitz Prize, 1984; Nebraska Book Award for poetry, 2001, for Winter Morning Walks: One Hundred Postcards to Jim Harrison; Best Book Written by a Midwestern Writer, Friends of American Writers, and Gold Award for Autobiography, ForeWord Magazine, both 2002, both for Local Wonders: Seasons in the Bohemian Alps; recipient of the Pushcart Prize, James Boatwright Prize, and a Merit Award from the Nebraska Arts Council.

WRITINGS:

UNDER NAME TED KOOSER; POETRY, EXCEPT AS NOTED

Offıcial Entry Blank, University of Nebraska Press (Lincoln, NE), 1969.

Grass County, Windflower (Lincoln, NE), 1971.

Twenty Poems, Best Cellar Press, 1973.

A Local Habitation and a Name, Solo Press (San Luis Obispo, CA), 1974.

Not Coming to Be Barked At, Pentagram Press (Milwaukee, WI), 1976.

Hatcher (illustrated fiction), Windflower (Lincoln, NE), 1978.

Old Marrieage and New: Poems, Cold Mountain Press (Austin, TX), 1978.

Sure Signs: New and Selected Poems, University of Pittsburgh Press (Pittsburgh, PA), 1980.

(With William Kloefkorn) Cottonwood County, Windflower (Lincoln, NE), 1980.

(Editor) The Windflower Home Almanac of Poetry, Windflower, 1980.

On Common Ground: The Poetry of William Kloefkorn, Ted Kooser, Greg Kuzma, and Don Welch, Sandhills Press, 1983.

One World at a Time, University of Pittsburgh Press (Pittsburgh, PA), 1985.

The Blizzard Voices, Bieler (Minneapolis, MN), 1986.

Weather Central, University of Pittsburgh Press (Pittsburgh, PA), 1994.

Winter Morning Walks: One Hundred Postcards to Jim Harrison, Carnegie Mellon University Press (Pittsburgh, PA), 2001.

Local Wonders: Seasons in the Bohemian Alps (essays), University of Nebraska Press (Lincoln, NE), 2002.

Braided Creek: A Conversation in Poetry, Copper Canyon Press (Port Townsend, WA), 2003.

Delights and Shadows: Poems, Copper Canyon Press (Port Townsend, WA), 2004.

Poetry has appeared in numerous magazines and literary reviews, including the New Yorker, American Poetry Review, Poetry, Hudson Review, Kansas Quarterly, Kenyon Review, Antioch Review, Prairie Schooner, Atlantic Monthly, and Shenandoah.

WORK IN PROGRESS: Writing for Beginners, a book about poetry.

SIDELIGHTS: Although he spent thirty-five years in the insurance business, Theodore Kooser remained committed to writing and has authored several books of poetry. He is considered by some critics to be among the best poets of his generation. "I don't know why this news hasn't been more widely trumpeted," wrote David Mason in the Prairie Schooner. "Perhaps it is because he has usually written brief, lucid poems while prominent critics fawn over poets who sprawl among their allusions." Mason also noted that in his collections Kooser "has mostly made short poems about perception itself, the signs of human habitation, the uncertainty of human knowledge and accomplishment."

Kooser began writing in his late teens and took a position teaching high school after graduating from Iowa State University in 1962. He soon enrolled in the graduate writing program at the University of Nebraska and worked as a graduate reader until he essentially flunked out a year later. In an interview on the Barnes and Noble Web site, Kooser said that he was "a completely undisciplined scholar."

Realizing that he had to make a living, Kooser took an entry-level job with an insurance company in Nebraska. He would remain in the industry until 1999. Throughout his insurance career, Kooser kept on writing, usually from about five-thirty to seven a.m. each morning before he went to the office. "I never saw myself as an insurance executive, but rather as a writer in need of a paying job," Kooser said in the Barnes and Noble interview.

In the late 1990s, Kooser developed cancer and essentially gave up both his job and writing. When he began to write again, Kooser would paste his daily poems on postcards he sent in correspondence with his friend and fellow writer Jim Harrison. The result was the 2001 collection of poems called Winter Morning Walks: One Hundred Postcards to Jim Harrison. Addressing both playful and serious poems, Kooser for the most part avoids talking directly about his illness in the collection. Rather, he refers to disease and the possibility of dying in metaphors focusing on the countryside around his Nebraska home, where he took long walks for inspiration.

"Kooser is one of the best makers of metaphor alive in the country, and for this alone he deserves honor," wrote Mason in a review of Winter Morning Walks for the Prairie Schooner. Mason also noted, "Kooser has often argued against the knee-jerk narcissism of poetry, and here he rarely dwells on his autobiography, though we can sense his personality by the quality of his observations." John Taylor, writing in Poetry, noted that "a rare quality distinguishes Winter Morning Walks."

Kooser strayed from poetry with his next book, a collection of essays titled Local Wonders: Seasons in the Bohemian Alps. Once again, Kooser zeroes in on the place he calls home. Just outside of Garland, Nebraska, it is facetiously referred to as the "Bohemian Alps." The essays cover one year, or four seasons, in the author's life. Although Kooser reflects on his younger days—as when he recalls his grandmother's cooking—the essays focus largely on the details of his current life and surroundings, such as the essay about an old-fashioned outhouse that sits on his rural property. In a contribution to Writer, Kate Flaherty said, "Kooser's meditations on life in southeastern Nebraska are as meticulous and exquisite as his many collections of poetry, and his quiet reticence and dry humor are refreshing in this age of spill-it-all memoirs."

For Braided Creek: A Conversation in Poetry Kooser teamed up with his friend Harrison to publish their correspondence consisting of entirely short poems written to each other while Kooser was recovering from cancer. Writing in Poetry, contributor Ray Olson noted that "wit and wisdom" are the mainstay of these correspondences. Olson added, "Their conversation always repays eavesdropping."

As for Kooser, he has returned to teaching poetry and nonfiction at the University of Nebraska, and he continues to write. "I waste very little time anymore," he said an interview for the University of Nebraska English Department newsletter.

Although sometimes classified as a "regional" writer because of his focus on the Midwest and Nebraska, Kooser has a different view of his work. He told CA: "I work with all subject matter and in all forms. Most of my work reflects my interest in my surroundings here on the Great Plains, but I do not consider myself to be a regionalist writer."

Commenting on his writing, Kooser told CA: "I wrote poetry from the time I was quite young and got serious about it as a teenager. The first poets I read have remained strong influences: Edward Arlington Robinson, Robert Frost, May Swenson, John Crowe Robinson and others. The biggest influence on my writing today is growing older."

"I am often surprised by which poems magazine editors like, as opposed to those I think are my best work. My favorite book is Weather Central, but I am fond of Delights and Shadows.

"I write for other people with the hope that I can help them to see the wonderful things within their everyday experiences. In short, I want to show people how interesting the ordinary world can be if you pay attention."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, April 1, 2003, Ray Olson, review of Braided Creek: A Conversation in Poetry, p. 1367.

Poetry, February, 2002, John Taylor, review of Winter Morning Walks: One Hundred Postcards to Jim Harrison, p. 295.

Prairie Schooner, fall, 2002, David Mason, review of Winter Morning Walks, p. 187.

Writer, November, 2002, Kate Flaherty, review of Local Wonders: Seasons in the Bohemian Alps, p. 56.

ONLINE

Barnes and Noble Web site, http://www.barnesandnoble.com/writers (November 3, 2003), "Ted Kooser."

University of Nebraska Web site, Department of English Newsletter, March 29, 2002, http://www.unl.edu/english/html/news/ (November 3, 2003), Janet Carlson, "Profiles."