Like “jumbo shrimp,” “famous poet” is pretty much an oxymoron. Still, if any contemporary Cleveland wordsmith is poised to make that leap, it’s George Bilgere. The John Carroll professor and Cleveland Arts Prize winner will be a featured performer on Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion on Saturday December 10.
Bilgere, 60, calls it “the biggest break by far” in his long career.
While the show will mark only the second time that Bilgere has met the writer, humorist, and NPR variety-show idol, the machinery for his appearance was set in motion nearly ten years ago, when Bilgere began “a great and lasting friendship” with former United States Poet Laureate Billy Collins.
In 2006, Bilgere published a poetry collection entitled Haywire. His pal Collins sent the book to Keillor, and Keillor read three poems from it on his Writer’s Almanac radio program the week it came out. “All 1500 copies sold out immediately,” marvels Bilgere. “In the world of poetry, that’s like selling a million copies!”
This article appears in Nov 30 – Dec 6, 2011.