Kooser graduated from Ames High School with a class of 175 students and enrolled at Iowa State University, the alma mater of his uncles.
[8] He eventually went on to work for Lincoln Benefit Life (a subsidiary of Allstate), an insurance company, for 35 years before retiring as vice president at the age of 60.
[9] He wrote for an hour and a half before work every morning, and by the time he retired, Kooser had published seven books of poetry.
[10] On August 12, 2004, he was named Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry by the Librarian of Congress to serve a term from October 2004 through May 2005.
During that same week, Kooser received the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for his book Delights & Shadows[11] (Copper Canyon Press, 2004).
Edward Hirsch wrote: "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, Delights & Shadows."
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.
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.
According to Warren Woessner, a poet during the Midwest Poetry Renaissance, the movement ended in 1975 with the publication of Heartland II.