New U.S. poet laureate named

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Billy Collins has been named the 11th U.S. poet laureate, Librarian of Congress James H. Billington has announced.

Collins -- a distinguished professor of English at Lehman College, City University of New York -- will take up his duties in the fall.

His one-year post as laureate will net him a $35,000 salary and a Washington office at the Library of Congress.

"Billy Collins' poetry is widely accessible. He writes in an original way about all manner of ordinary things and situations with both humor and a surprising contemplative twist. We look forward to his energizing presence next year," Billington said.

Born in 1941 in New York City, Collins follows Robert Penn Warren, Richard Wilbur, Howard Nemerov, Mark Strand, Joseph Brodsky, Mona Van Duyn, Rita Dove, Robert Hass, Robert Pinsky, and Stanley Kunitz as U.S. poet laureate.

A profile of Collins on The Academy of American Poets Web site says he is the author of six books of poetry -- "Picnic, Lightning," "The Art of Drowning," "Questions About Angels," "The Apple That Astonished Paris," "Video Poems," and "Pokerface." His next collection of poems, "Sailing Alone Around the Room," is scheduled for release this fall from Random House.

His honors include fellowships at the New York Foundation for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Guggenheim Foundation. He has also been awarded the Oscar Blumenthal Prize, the Bess Hokin Prize, the Frederick Bock Prize, and the Levinson Prize, all from Poetry magazine.

He is also a writer-in-residence at Sarah Lawrence College, and served as a Literary Lion of the New York Public Library. He lives in Somers, New York.