Billy Collins at The Music Loft on Oct. 21

Called “America’s Favorite Poet” by The Wall Street Journal and “the most popular poet in America” by The New York Times, Billy Collins will be in Portsmouth for a public Pre-Event Book Signing and Meet+Greet prior to his sold-out event at The Music Hall Loft.

Collins will be signing his new book AIMLESS LOVE: New and Selected Poems, his first volume of new and selected poetry in twelve years, which is just out in paperback. Collins’s unmistakable voice, which brings together plain speech with imaginative surprise, sings on every page of this new work. His poetry captures the nuances of everyday life while leading the reader into worlds of inspired wonder. As he writes about anything and everything – birds, objects, foreign cities and the fright and being older than Cheerios – Collins wonderfully navigates the themes of love, loss, joy, and poetry itself in this engaging collection. In the poet’s own words, he hopes that his poems “begin in Kansas and end in Oz.”

Billy Collins has been published widely and has been featured in America’s leading literary magazines such as The New Yorker, Poetry, and The Atlantic. Appearing regularly in The Best American Poetry series, his poems appeal to both serious and casual readers of poetry and have been translated into more than a dozen languages.

As U.S. Poet Laureate, he created Poetry 180, a daily poetry program for high schools, and partnered with Delta to develop a poetry channel for airline passengers. A handful of his poems were animated by the Sundance Channel and many have been brought to life by fans on YouTube, garnering hundreds of thousands of views. In 2013 New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority commissioned Collins to write a poem commemorating the 100th anniversary of Grand Central Terminal, and his poem “Grand Central” appeared on the backs of millions of MetroCards and in thousands of subway cars throughout the city. He is one of the few poets whose verse reaches far beyond the rarified world of poetry to touch the lives of millions of Americans.

Collins is the author of 10 collections of poetry, including Horoscopes for the Dead, Ballistics, The Trouble with Poetry, Nine Horses, Sailing Alone Around the Room, Questions About Angels, The Art of Drowning, and Picnic, Lightning. He is also the editor of Poetry 180: A Turning Back to Poetry, 180 More: Extraordinary Poems for Every Day, and Bright Wings: An Illustrated Anthology of Poems About Birds. A distinguished professor of English at Lehman College of the City University of New York, and a distinguished Fellow at the Winter Park Institute of Rollins College, he was Poet Laureate of the United States from 2001 to 2003 and Poet Laureate of New York State from 2004 to 2006. He lives in Florida.

Tickets for the Pre-Event Book Signing and Meet+Greet with Poet Billy Collins on Tuesday, October 21, 5pm-6pm are $16. The purchase of a ticket includes a signed copy of AIMLESS LOVE, paperback. Tickets can be purchased online at themusichall.org

About Writers in the Loft

Akin to The Music Hall’s anchor author series, Writers on a New England Stage, Writers in the Loft features well-known authors but in a smaller, more intimate space. The series brings audiences today’s top authors, the best of fiction and nonfiction. The evening package includes a reserved seat and bar beverage, author presentation and Q+A, a copy of the book, and a meet-and-greet book signing with the featured writer.

About The Music Hall

The Music Hall is a performing arts center featuring curated entertainment from around the world in two theaters in its downtown Portsmouth, New Hampshire campus - one, a landmark 1878 Victorian theater, designated an American Treasure for the Arts by the National Park Service’s Save America’s Treasures Program, the other the intimate Music Hall Loft around the corner, recently named “best performing arts venue” by Yankee Magazine and the recipient of the NH AIA award for design excellence. With acclaimed signature series like Writers on a New England Stage – a partnership between The Music Hall and New Hampshire Public Radio – and the Intimately Yours music series, we bring top authors and artists to both stages. Also, HD broadcasts from The Metropolitan Opera and the National Theatre of London as well as extraordinary cinema fill both screens almost every night of the year. This dynamic arts center urges patrons to Explore + Learn via master classes, post film panel discussions, and matinees for children. An anchor cultural organization in this historic working seaport, The Music Hall is one of downtown Portsmouth’s biggest employers and largest contributors to the regional economy: The Music Hall and its patrons contribute $7 million annually to the local economy through show and visitor related spending. Innovative in its outlook, the organization is community oriented and committed to making the Seacoast flourish. The Music Hall is a 501(c)3 nonprofit managed by a professional staff with the assistance of a volunteer board. Though global in the scope of its artists and programs, The Music Hall operates independently with the support of 3,000 members, 300 corporate partners and 58 community partners. Welcoming more than 100,000 patrons (including 20,000 children) each year from the tri-state area and beyond, The Music Hall is the region’s center for the performing arts, literature and education…easy to get to, impossible to forget. An American Treasure celebrating 135 years.

Web: TheMusicHall.org | Twitter: @MusicHall | Facebook: /musichall | YouTube: /musichallnh

Photo credit: Suzannah Gilman.