Biography Jack Prelutsky

Jack Prelutsky

photo of Jack Prelutsky
  • Time Period1940 -
  • PlaceNew York
  • CountryUnited States

Poet Biography

Jack Prelutsky (born in Brooklyn, New York on September 8, 1940) is the author of more than 50 poetry collections including Nightmares: Poems to Trouble Your Sleep (1976), The Mean Old Mean Hyena (1978), and Something BIG Has Been Here (1990). He has also compiled numerous children's anthologies comprising poems of others. He currently lives in Washington State with his wife, Carolyn.

He has also set his poems to music on the audio versions of his anthologies. He often sings and plays guitar on most of them.

In 2006, the Poetry Foundation named Prelutsky the inaugural winner of the Children’s Poet Laureate award.

Jack Prelutsky claims to have hated poetry when he was younger. He has also lived in Manhattan, Albuquerque, and Boston. He says that he also plans on living in other cities as well.

He is known for his appearance in the popular TV Series, Arthur in the episode "I'm a Poet."

His book, Behold the Bold Umbrellaphant and Other Poems (illustrated by Carin Berger), won the 2007 Scandiuzzi Children's Book Award of the Washington State Book Awards in the Picture Book category.