Louis Simpson reads from 'Struggling Times'

Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Louis Simpson has been a leading figure in American letters for more than half-a-century. Born in 1923 in Jamaica, the son of a lawyer of Scottish descent and a Russian mother, he emigrated to America at the age of 17. He served in the US Army during the Second World War, returning to continue his studies at Columbia University and then at the University of Paris. While living in France he published his first book of poems, THE ARRIVISTES (1949). He later taught at Columbia, the University of California at Berkeley, and the State University of New York at Stony Brook. At the age of 86, he has just published his 18th collection of poems, STRUGGLING TIMES, with BOA Editions in the US. Both timely and personal, the poems reveal Simpson's continuing quarrel with suburban America, as well as his concerns about the direction of an American society struggling to retain its integrity in the midst of widespread challenges and worldwide strife. Pamela Ro bertson-Pearce filmed him at his home in Setauket, Long Island, in September 2008. In this video, he reads two poems from STRUGGLING TIMES, 'A New Year's Child' and 'Spot on the Kitchen Floor'. These poems will also appear in his first British edition for over 25 years, SELECTED POEMS, due from Bloodaxe Books in 2010. For more information, see: boaeditions.org

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