William James Collins, known professionally as Billy Collins, is an American poet born on March 22, 1941. He served as the Poet Laureate of the United States from 2001 to 2003. Collins was a Distinguished Professor at Lehman College of the City University of New York until his retirement in 2016.

He was recognized as a Literary Lion of the New York Public Library in 1992 and was selected as the New York State Poet from 2004 through 2006. In 2016, he was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters. As of 2020, he teaches in the MFA program at Stony Brook Southampton.