The Lunatic

Winner of the pulitzer prize
Former poet laureate of the united states
This latest volume of poetry from Charles Simic, one of America's most celebrated poets, demonstrates his signature mix of wry melancholy and sardonic wit—a dazzling collection as original, meditative, and humorous as the poet himself.
For more than fifty years, Simic has delighted readers with his innovative form, quiet humor, and his rare ability to limn our interior life and concisely capture the depth of human emotion. These stunning, succinct poems validate and reinforce Simic's importance and relevance in modern poetry.
“ 'When our souls are happy,' Charles Simic has written, 'they talk about food.' When my soul is happy, often enough, I want to talk about Mr. Simic.”—Dwight Garner, New York Times Book Review

Charles Simic was a poet, essayist, and translator who was born in Yugoslavia in 1938 and immigrated to the United States in 1954. He published more than twenty books of poetry, in addition to a memoir and numerous books of translations for which he received many honors, including the Pulitzer Prize, the Zbigniew Herbert International Literary Award, the Griffin Poetry Prize, a MacArthur Fellowship, and the Wallace Stevens Award. In 2007, he served as poet laureate of the United States. He was a distinguished visiting writer at New York University and professor emeritus at the University of New Hampshire, where he taught since 1973. He died in January 2023 at the age of eighty-four.