Ted Kooser Biography
Ted Kooser is an American poet who was born and brought up in Ames, Iowa, as Theodore J. Kooser. He won the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry in the year 2005.
He worked as Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004 to 2006. Kooser was among the first poets laureate selected from the Great Plains. He is known for his conversational style of poetry.
10 Quick Facts About Ted Kooser
- Name: Theodore J. Kooser
- Age: 83 years old as of 2023
- Birthday: April 25
- Zodiac Sign: Taurus
- Height: Average
- Nationality: American
- Marital Status: Married to Kathleen Rutledge
- Occupation: Poet
- Salary: Under Review
- Net worth: $5 million dollars as of 2023
Ted Kooser Age
Kooser is 83 years old as of 2023, he was born on April 25, 1939, in Ames, Iowa, United States. He celebrates his birthday on April 25, every year, and his birth sign is Taurus.
Ted Kooser Height
Kooser stands at an average height. He appears to be quite tall in stature if his photos, relative to his surroundings, are anything to go by. However, details regarding his actual height and other body measurements are currently not publicly available. We will update this section when the information is available.
Early Life and Education
Kooser was born on April 25, 1939, in Ames, Iowa. He enrolled in Ames Public Schools for elementary and middle school. When Kooser arrived at Ames High School, his interest diverted from the library and went to cars. He joined the Nightcrawlers Car Club and became secretary of the group in 1956.
His motivation for writing in high school was credited to one of his teachers, Mary McNally, who encouraged him to continue writing essays and poems that reflected his life. When he reached his teenage age he became a famous poet for three reasons: glory, immortality and to leave the bohemian lifestyle behind.
He then graduated from Ames High School with a class of 175 students and enrolled at Iowa State University, the alma mater of his uncles. He began writing short nonfiction stories for the Iowa State student literary magazine. He also joined the Iowa State Writer’s Round Table, which he credits for fine-tuning his writing skills; Iowa Senator Tom Harkin was also a part of the group.
In 1961, Kooser moved to Marshalltown, Iowa, to student teach English classes. The following year, he graduated with a BS in English education from Iowa State University and moved to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to live with his parents.
He was offered a graduate readership opportunity at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and in 1963, he and his wife moved to Lincoln, Nebraska. After winning the Vreeland Award for poetry in 1964, he soon lost his graduate readership from the University for his poor GPA. In 1967, he received his MA from Nebraska.
Rise To Fame
Kooser is an American poet, he is known for his tender wisdom and his depiction of homespun America. Kooser joined Iowa State University and the University of Nebraska prior to settling into an insurance career that continued until his retirement.
Ted Kooser Family
Kooser was born and raised by his parents Ted Kooser Sr. and Vera Kooser in Ames, Iowa. It is not known if he has any siblings. We will update this section once this information is available.
Ted Kooser Wife
Kooser is married to Kathleen Rutledge who is a former editor of the Lincoln Journal Star. The couple has one son and two grandchildren.
Ted Kooser Salary
The amount of salary that Ted earns has not yet been revealed. However, the information will be updated as soon as it is available.
Ted Kooser Net Worth
Ted has an estimated net worth of $5 million dollars as of 2023. This includes his assets, money, and income. His primary source of income is his career as a poet. Through his various sources of income, Ted has been able to accumulate good fortune but prefers to lead a modest lifestyle.
Ted Kooser Measurements and Facts
Here are some interesting facts and body measurements you should know about Ted Kooser.
Ted Kooser Wiki
- Full Name: Theodore J. Kooser
- Popular As: Ted
- Gender: Male
- Occupation / Profession: poet
- Nationality: American
- Race / Ethnicity: White
- Religion: Not Known
- Sexual Orientation: Straight
Ted Kooser Birthday
- Age / How Old?: 83 years old as of 2023
- Zodiac Sign:
- Date of Birth: April 25, 1939
- Place of Birth: Ames, Iowa, United States
- Birthday: April 25
Ted Kooser Body Measurements
- Body Measurements: Not Available
- Height / How Tall?: Average
- Weight: Moderate
- Eye Color: Not Available
- Hair Color: Not Available
- Shoe Size: Not Available
- Dress Size: Not Available
Ted Kooser Family and Relationship
- Father (Dad): Ted Kooser Sr
- Mother: Vera Kooser
- Siblings (Brothers and Sisters): Not Known
- Marital Status: Married
- Wife/Spouse: Married to Kathleen Rutledge
- Dating / Girlfriend: Not Applicable
- Children: Sons (One) Daughter(s) (Not Known)
Ted Kooser Net Worth and Salary
- Net Worth: $5 million dollars as of 2023
- Salary: Under Review
- Source of Income: Poet
Poet
On August 12, 2004, Kooser was named Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry by the Librarian of Congress to serve a term from October 2004 through May 2005. In April 2005, Ted Kooser was appointed to serve a second term as Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry. During that same week, Kooser received the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for his book “Delights and Shadows”(Copper Canyon Press, 2004).
Kooser’s most recent book, Regards: New and Selected Poems, was published in 2018 by Copper Canyon Press and surveys his entire four-decade career. Kooser lives in Garland, Nebraska, and much of his work focuses on the Great Plains.
Like Wallace Stevens, Kooser spent much of his working years as an executive in the insurance industry, although Kooser sardonically noted in an interview with the Washington Post that Stevens had far more time to write at work than he ever did. He hosts the newspaper project “American Life in Poetry.” He is also editor of the Ted Kooser Contemporary Poetry series published by the University of Nebraska Press.
Midwest Poetry Renaissance
Kooser was part of the Midwest Poetry Renaissance in the 1960s and 1970s. The Midwest Poetry Renaissance drew on elements of Rural America through a five-state swath of the Great Plains region. Poets of the midwest were respected among artists throughout the country due to being informed of larger societal forces, such as the distrust of a media-driven culture.
More small presses opened up at that time, and Midwestern poets began publishing more work. Warren Woessner regards the catalyst of the MPR to be the anthology Heartland in 1967. The movement began to develop after that point, along with the works of Ted and other poets such as Victor Contoski, Mak Vinz, David Steinglass, Gary Gildner, James Hazard, Greg Kuzma, Judith Minty, and Kathy Weigner (as well as many others) who exemplified the rural subject matter and conversational tone.
Most of the poets were in their twenties or early thirties and published their first books. Ted was in his late twenties and thirties during the decade the Midwest Poetry Renaissance occurred. He published his first book through the University of Nebraska Press at age 30, titled “Official Entry Blank.”
Ted’s first full-length book was already out of print by the early 1970s, at which time he became more of a small-press poet like many other poets in the Midwest. Ted continued to receive publication of individual poems within anthologies and published several more books on small presses.
He also began to edit The New Salt Creek Reader, which had six anthologies by 1974. According to Warren Woessner, a poet during the Midwest Poetry Renaissance, the movement ended in 1975 with the publication of Heartland II.
Poetic Style
Kooser is known for his conversational style of poetry that is accessible to a nonliterary public. Critic Dana Gioia, in his book, Can Poetry Matter?, describes Kooser’s style as “drawn from common speech, with subject matter common to the Midwest.”
Kooser’s early and contemporary work involves both troubles for Midwesterners and observations from everyday life. Recurring themes include love, family, place, and time, but he does not consider himself a regional poet.
Poetry Foundation
Kooser strayed from poetry in his next book, with a collection of essays titled Local Wonders: Seasons in the Bohemian Alps (2002). Once again, Kooser zeroes in on the place he calls home. Just outside of Garland, Nebraska, the community is facetiously referred to as the “Bohemian Alps.” The essays cover one year, or four seasons, in the author’s life.
Although Kooser reflects on his younger days, the essays focus largely on the details of his current life and surroundings. In a contribution to Writer, Kate Flaherty said, “Kooser’s meditations on life in southeastern Nebraska are as meticulous and exquisite as his many collections of poetry, and his quiet reticence and dry humor are refreshing in this age of spill-it-all memoirs.”
For Braided Creek: A Conversation in Poetry (2003) Kooser again teamed up with Harrison to publish their correspondence consisting of entirely short poems written to each other while Kooser was recovering from cancer. Writing in Poetry, contributor Ray Olson noted that “wit and wisdom” are the mainstay of these correspondences.
Olson added, “Their conversation always repays eavesdropping.” Kooser’s next book, Delights, and Shadows (2004) went on to win the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. In the Washington Post, poet and critic Ed Hirsch noted that “there is a sense of quiet amazement at the core of all Kooser’s work, but it especially seems to animate his new collection of poems.”
Describing the work as “a book of portraits and landscapes … small wonders and hard dualisms,” Hirsch compared Kooser’s art to other Great Plains’ poets who write “an unadorned, pragmatic, quintessentially American poetry of empty places, of farmland and low-slung cities,” crafting poems of “sturdy forthrightness with hidden depths.”
When Kooser was named America’s national poet laureate in 2004, the honor coincided with the publication of Flying at Night: Poems 1965-1985 (2005), a collection of his previously published poetry. At the time, the self-effacing poet was by no means a household name.
Of Flying at Night, New York Times Book Review contributor Brad Leithauser wrote, “This is good, honest work,” and Library Journal reviewer Louis McKee wrote that “Kooser’s pure American voice and clear-eyed observation are a refreshing treat after the cynical, skeptical poetry from the … coasts.”
Kooser used his post as laureate to further the cause of poetry with a general reading audience. Partnering with the Poetry Foundation, he began the “American Life in Poetry” program, which offers a free weekly poem to newspapers across the United States. The aim of the program is to raise the visibility of poetry.
Kooser’s other publications, including The Poetry Home Repair Manual: Practical Advice for Beginning Poets (2005) and Writing Brave and Free (2006), offer help to aspiring poets and writers, both in the guise of practical writing tips and essays on poetry, poets, and craft.
Kooser’s next non-fiction book, Lights on a Ground of Darkness (2009) returned to the meditations on the place that marked Local Wonders, though the book focuses on Kooser’s family, especially his Uncle Elvy. David Ulin of the Los Angeles Times described the book as “written in prose as spare as a winter sunset,” adding that “it is an elegy, not just for Kooser’s forebears but for all of us.”
Kooser teaches poetry and nonfiction at the University of Nebraska and continues to write. “I waste very little time anymore,” he said an interview for the University of Nebraska English Department newsletter. In addition to the Pulitzer Prize, his many honors and awards include the Nebraska Book Award, a Pushcart Prize, the Stanley Kunitz Prize, a Merit Award from the Nebraska Arts Council, and two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Commenting on his writing, Kooser also told Contemporary Authors: “I write for other people with the hope that I can help them to see the wonderful things within their everyday experiences. In short, I want to show people how interesting the ordinary world can be if you pay attention.”
Social Impact
Ted Kooser was part of the Midwest Poetry Renaissance in the 1960s and 1970s. The Midwest Poetry Renaissance drew on elements of Rural America through a five-state swath of the Great Plains region. Poets of the Midwest were respected among artists throughout the country due to being informed of larger societal forces.
Awards, Accomplishments, and Achievements
Kooser is an accomplished poet who has received many awards and accolades throughout his career. In 2005, he received a Pulitzer Prize for his collection of poems titled Delights & Shadows.
He has also published several other collections of poetry, including Valentines (2008), Splitting an Order (2014), Kindest Regards: New and Selected Poems (2018), and Red Stilts (2020).
Books
- Delights and Shadows 2004
- Local wonders 2002
- The Poetry Home Repair Manual: Practical Advice for Beginning Poets 2005
- Winter Morning Walks Ted Kooser 2000
- Splitting an Order 2014
- Braided Creek: A Conversation in Poetry 2003
- Kindest Regards: New and Selected Poems 2018
- Lights on a Ground of Darkness: An Evocation of a Place and Time 2009
- Bag in the Wind 2010
- Valentines 2008
- The Wheeling Year: A Poet’s Field Book 2014
- Writing brave and free 2006
- One World at a Time 1995
- Mr. Posey’s New Glasses 2019
- The Bell in the Bridge 2016
- Flying at night 2005
- Weather central 1994
- House Held Up by Trees 2012
Quotes
Frequently Asked Questions About Ted Kooser
Ted Kooser is an American poet who was born and brought up in Ames, Iowa, as Theodore J. Kooser. He won the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry in the year 2005.
Kooser is an American national born on April 25, 1939, in Ames, Iowa, United States
Kooser stands at an average height, he has not shared her height with the public. His height will be listed once we have it from a credible source.
Kooser is married to Kathleen Rutledge who is a former editor of the Lincoln Journal Star. The couple has one son and two grandchildren.
Ted has an estimated net worth of $5 million dollars as of 2023. This includes his assets, money, and income.
Details about Kooser’s salary are not yet disclosed. However, information about how much he makes will be updated as soon as it is available.
Kooser is a resident of Lincoln, USA, we shall upload pictures of his house as soon as we have them.
Kooser is alive and in good health. There have been no reports of him being sick or having any health-related issues.
Ted is still an active participant in the creative entertainment industry.
Ted Kooser Contacts
- Youtube
- Website
- Tiktok
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