Skip to main content
Vilcek Foundation
  • About
    • About

      The Vilcek Foundation raises awareness of immigrant contributions in the United States and fosters appreciation of the arts and sciences.

    • Our Mission
    • Our Founders
    • Our Team
    • Press Center
    • Contact
  • Prizes
    • Prizes

      The Vilcek Foundation Prizes celebrate extraordinary achievements in the arts and sciences.

    • About the Prizes
    • Prize Recipients
    • Vilcek Prizes

      Awards immigrants with a legacy of major accomplishments.

    • Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise

      Recognizes young immigrant professionals for outstanding achievements.

    • Vilcek Prize for Excellence

      Celebrating intellectual and cultural leaders in the United States.

    • Marica Vilcek Prize in Art History

      Honors art historians, curators, and fine arts professionals.

  • Art
  • Grants
    • Grants

      Grants awarded to 501(c)(3) cultural, educational, and philanthropic organizations in the United States.

    • Grants

      Learn more and apply for a grant.

    • Grants History

      Explore a list of past Vilcek Foundation grantees.

  • Events
  • News
Sign Up Search
Home > Prizes > Prize Recipients > Charles Simic

Charles Simic

2011 Vilcek Prize in Literature

Title

Emeritus Professor of English and Creative Writing, and Distinguished Poet-in-Residence at the University of New Hampshire

Area(s) of Research

Poetry; English literature; creative writing

Education

New York University (BA, Russian)

Country of Birth

Serbia

Tags
editor essayist guggenheim fellowship literature macarthur fellowship poet poet laureate pulitzer prize serbia
Share this page
Share this page on X Share this page on Facebook Share this page on LinkedIn
A photo of Charles Simic wearing a dress shirt and jacket at night outdoors.
Photo courtesy of City Arts Magazine

Charles Simic’s poetry has been called “strikingly original,” “grimly realistic,” “metaphysical,” “ironically humorous,” “meditative,” and, most often, “surreal.” He began writing poetry while in high school, and always in English, which he had learned to speak at 15, after leaving Belgrade and arriving in the States, by way of Paris. Just five years later, in 1959, he had published his first poems in an issue of the Chicago Review. His college education was hard won, at night, paid for by the various odd jobs he took during the day, first in Chicago and later in New York City, and interrupted by a two-year stint in the military.

He completed his bachelor’s degree in Russian, in 1966, from New York University, but the influences and inspirations for his poems were already well established: his childhood experiences, his passion for art, poetry, jazz, and film, and his keen eye for observation. Within a year after graduation, his first collection, What the Grass Says, was published.

Simic has kept up an astounding pace in the ensuing years. Among his 20 books of poetry include The World Doesn’t End: Prose Poems (1990), which won the Pulitzer Prize; Walking the Black Cat (1996), a National Book Award finalist; Jackstraws (1999), a New York Times Notable Book of the Year; and Selected Poems: 1963–2003 (2004), which won the 2005 International Griffin Poetry Prize. He has been equally productive as a translator, editor, and essayist.

Simic remains active as a teacher, and since 1973 has taught English and creative writing at the University of New Hampshire, where he is today Emeritus Professor; and as a Distinguished Poet-in-Residence, he teaches every fall semester at New York University.

 

Awards and Accomplishments

  • Robert Frost Medal (2011)
  • Wallace Stevens Award (2007)
  • Poet Laureate of the United States (2007)
  • International Griffin Poetry Prize (2005)
  • Fellow, Guggenheim
  • Fellow, MacArthur Foundation
  • Fellow, National Endowment for the Arts
  • New York Times Notable Book of the Year (1999)
  • Pulitzer Prize (1990)

Jury Members

2011 Vilcek Prize in Literature

Lan Samantha Chang

Director, The University of Iowa Writers' Workshop

Deborah Landau

Director, New York University Creative Writing Program

Eileen Pollack

Zell Director, The University of Michigan MFA Program in Creative Writing

Francine Prose

Distinguished Visiting Writer, Bard College

Ilan Stavans

Lewis-Sebring Professor in Latin American and Latino Culture, Amherst College

Deborah Treisman

Fiction Editor, The New Yorker
Tags
editor essayist guggenheim fellowship literature macarthur fellowship poet poet laureate pulitzer prize serbia
Share this page
Share this page on X Share this page on Facebook Share this page on LinkedIn

Related Prize Recipients

Edwidge Danticat

Edwidge Danticat receives the Vilcek Prize in Literature for dazzling prose and profound understanding of our shared human condition embodied through her genre-spanning work that explores the Haitian diaspora and other personal narratives.
Portrait of Edwidge Danticat

Dinaw Mengestu

Dinaw Mengestu receives the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Literature for his celebrated writings that explore the themes of alienation and human connection among immigrants in America.
Dinaw Mengestu

Téa Obreht

Téa Obreht is an honoree for the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Literature.

You may also be interested in

February 3, 2025

Vilcek Prize for Excellence Awarded to Henry Louis Gates Jr.

Henry Louis Gates Jr. receives the $100,000 award in recognition of his contributions to history, culture, and society.
A portrait of Henry Louis Gates Jr. with a conference room out of focus in the background.
February 13, 2023

Du Yun: “You can’t think of things that don’t work as a failure”

Born in China, composer, performer, and advocate Du Yun defies expectations or categorization.
Du Yun in a colorful dress standing in Times Square.
March 9, 2020

Jenny Xie: Eye Level

Jenny Xie is a poet and lecturer. Her award-winning poetry probes identity, perception, and the boundaries of selfhood.
Jenny Xie is a poet and lecturer. Her award-winning poetry probes identity, perception, and the boundaries of selfhood.

Join our mailing list

Sign Up
Vilcek Foundation
21 East 70th Street
New York, New York 10021

Phone: 212.472.2500

Email: info@vilcek.org

  • About
    • Our Mission
    • Our Founders
    • Our Team
    • Press Center
    • Contact
  • Prizes
    • Prize Recipients
    • Vilcek Prizes
    • Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise
    • Vilcek Prize for Excellence
    • Marica Vilcek Prize in Art History
  • Art
  • Grants
    • Grants History
  • Events
  • News
  • Careers
Connect with us
  • Connect with the Vilcek Foundation on Facebook
  • Connect with the Vilcek Foundation on Instagram
  • Connect with the Vilcek Foundation on X
  • Connect with the Vilcek Foundation on LinkedIn
  • Connect with the Vilcek Foundation on Youtube
  • Connect with the Vilcek Foundation on Vimeo
  • Privacy Policy
  • Accessibility Statement
© 2025   Vilcek Foundation
We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.Ok