http://www.newyorker.com/culture/cul...ylan-nobel-win
Very high spirited piece by Remnick, editor of the New Yorker, that ends with lots of links.
My parents were very junior English professors at the Hibbing Community College. They rented an apartment above the Zimmerman Store, and they paid the boy ten cents an hour to push my stroller. No wonder I turned to poetry! He became famous when I was twelve, and I loved and memorized his songs. This prize delights me even more than VS Naipaul, who was honored right after 9/11 in a rare nod to a conservative.
Claudia, an awful lot of Burns' appeal depends on the ancient airs he set his lyrics to. I teach Burns in high school every January 25, and I am more influenced by him than any other poet.