Ted Kooser (born in Ames, Iowa) served as Poet Laureate of the United States from 2004 to 2006 and is one of the most beloved American poets of the Great Plains. He worked for thirty-five years as an executive at Lincoln Benefit Life Company in Nebraska while writing poetry. He received his MA from the University of Nebraska. His collection Delights & Shadows (Copper Canyon, 2004) won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. He has received two NEA fellowships and a Pushcart Prize. His American Life in Poetry newspaper column, which he began as Poet Laureate, reaches millions of readers weekly. He is Presidential Professor Emeritus at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.