Billy Collins is back for his biennial tour of the Island. Mr. Collins touches down on Sunday, June 9 at Featherstone Center of the Arts for a reading that is guaranteed to be funny, poignant, wry, tender and everything in between.

The event is a partnership between Featherstone, the Noepe Center for Literary Arts and Pathways Arts.

Mr. Collins was the United States poet laureate from 2001 to 2003 and a regular guest on the Prairie Home Companion radio show. His trips to the Vineyard began over a decade ago.

“They seem to have me up here every two years, which is just enough time for them to forget me, and then they have me back as a reminder,” he said during an interview with the Gazette during his visit in 2011. “The pressure is on for me to come up with a poem every two years for the people on Martha’s Vineyard.”

He always succeeds. Consider his visit to Featherstone in 2017 when he was introduced by Carly Simon. At the event Ms. Simon recalled first meeting the poet at a reading of his work at the home of Rose Styron.

“I whispered in his ear and said, I think I’m in love with you,” she said.

Such is the effect Mr. Collins has on his fans.

The reading on Sunday begins at 6:30 p.m. And for those who want to actually be Billy Collins, he is giving a workshop on Monday, June 10 from 9 a.m. to noon at Featherstone.

For more information and tickets, visit noepe.org or featherstoneart.org.