American poet, whose verse was noted for its tender wisdom and its depiction of homespun America.

Kooser attended Iowa State University (B.S., 1962) and the University of Nebraska (M.A., 1968) and briefly taught high-school English before settling into an insurance career that continued until his retirement in 1998. In 1970 he began teaching creative writing part-time at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln.

Kooser's subject is everyday experience. His poetry, generally short, treats the Midwestern landscape and rural life. His most common poetic technique is the creation of an extended metaphor that begins with the selection of a specific image and enriches it in surprising ways. His first collection of poetry was published as Official Entry Blank (1969). His later volumes include Sure Signs (1980), One World at a Time (1985), Weather Central (1994), and Braided Creek: A Conversation in Poetry (2003), which was cowritten with Jim Harrison (Harrison, Jim). In 2005 Kooser received a Pulitzer Prize for Delights & Shadows (2004). Valentines (2008) collects poems Kooser wrote over the course of two decades on the occasion of Valentine's Day. His nonfiction work includes Local Wonders: Seasons in the Bohemian Alps (2002) and The Poetry Home Repair Manual: Practical Advice for Beginning Poets (2005), a guidebook to writing poetry.

Kooser was the publisher and editor of Windflower Press, which specialized in contemporary poetry, and of the magazines Salt Creek Reader (1967–75) and Blue Hotel (1980–81). In 2004 he became the first poet from the Great Plains to be named poet laureate consultant in poetry to the Library of Congress; he held the post until 2006.