Robert Pinsky
Encyclopedia
Robert Pinsky is an American poet, essayist, literary critic
, and translator. From 1997 to 2000, he served as Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress
. Pinsky is the author of nineteen books, most of which are collections of his own poetry. His published work also includes critically acclaimed translations, including a collection of poems by Czesław Miłosz and Dante Alighieri
. He teaches at Boston University
and is the poetry editor at Slate
.
, where he attended Long Branch High School
. He received a B.A. from Rutgers University
in New Brunswick, New Jersey
, and earned both an M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy from Stanford University
, where he was a Stegner Fellow
in creative writing. He was a student of poet & critic Yvor Winters
at Stanford.
Early on, Pinsky was inspired by the flow and tension of jazz and the excitement that it made him feel. He said it was an incredible experience that he has tried to reproduce in his poetry. The musicality of poetry was and is extremely important to his work.
He received a National Endowment for the Humanities
Fellowship in 1974, and in 1997 he was named the United States Poet Laureate and Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress, being the first and so far only poet to be named to three terms. He now lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts
, and teaches in the graduate writing program at Boston University.
As Poet Laureate, Pinsky founded the Favorite Poem Project, in which thousands of Americans of varying backgrounds, all ages, and from every state share their favorite poems. Pinsky believed that, contrary to stereotype, poetry has a strong presence in the American culture. The project sought to document that presence, giving voice to the American audience for poetry.
Pinsky wrote the libretto for Death and the Powers, a ground-breaking opera by composer Tod Machover
. The opera received its world premiere in Monte Carlo in September 2010, and its U.S. premiere at Boston's Cutler Majestic Theater in March 2011.
Pinsky is also the author of the interactive fiction
game Mindwheel (1984) developed by Synapse Software
and released by Broderbund.
Pinsky guest-starred in a 2002 episode of the animated
sitcom The Simpsons
TV show, "Little Girl in the Big Ten
", and appeared on The Colbert Report in April, 2007, as the judge of a "Meta-Free-Phor-All" between Stephen Colbert
and Sean Penn
.
Literary criticism
Literary criticism is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often informed by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of its methods and goals...
, and translator. From 1997 to 2000, he served as Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress
Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress
The Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress—commonly referred to as the United States Poet Laureate—serves as the nation's official poet. During his or her term, the Poet Laureate seeks to raise the national consciousness to a greater appreciation of the reading and writing of...
. Pinsky is the author of nineteen books, most of which are collections of his own poetry. His published work also includes critically acclaimed translations, including a collection of poems by Czesław Miłosz and Dante Alighieri
Dante Alighieri
Durante degli Alighieri, mononymously referred to as Dante , was an Italian poet, prose writer, literary theorist, moral philosopher, and political thinker. He is best known for the monumental epic poem La commedia, later named La divina commedia ...
. He teaches at Boston University
Boston University
Boston University is a private research university located in Boston, Massachusetts. With more than 4,000 faculty members and more than 31,000 students, Boston University is one of the largest private universities in the United States and one of Boston's largest employers...
and is the poetry editor at Slate
Slate (magazine)
Slate is a US-based English language online current affairs and culture magazine created in 1996 by former New Republic editor Michael Kinsley, initially under the ownership of Microsoft as part of MSN. On 21 December 2004 it was purchased by the Washington Post Company...
.
Biography
Robert Pinsky was born on October 20, 1940, in Long Branch, New JerseyLong Branch, New Jersey
Long Branch is a city in Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city population was 30,719.Long Branch was formed on April 11, 1867, as the Long Branch Commission, from portions of Ocean Township...
, where he attended Long Branch High School
Long Branch High School
Long Branch High School is a comprehensive, four-year community public high school that serves students in ninth through twelfth grades in the city of Long Branch, in Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States, operating as part of the Long Branch Public Schools. LBPS, one of 31 special-needs...
. He received a B.A. from Rutgers University
Rutgers University
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey , is the largest institution for higher education in New Jersey, United States. It was originally chartered as Queen's College in 1766. It is the eighth-oldest college in the United States and one of the nine Colonial colleges founded before the American...
in New Brunswick, New Jersey
New Brunswick, New Jersey
New Brunswick is a city in Middlesex County, New Jersey, USA. It is the county seat and the home of Rutgers University. The city is located on the Northeast Corridor rail line, southwest of Manhattan, on the southern bank of the Raritan River. At the 2010 United States Census, the population of...
, and earned both an M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy from Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
, where he was a Stegner Fellow
Stegner Fellowship
The Stegner Fellowship program is a two-year creative writing fellowship at Stanford University. The award is named after American Wallace Stegner , an historian, novelist, short story writer, environmentalist, and Stanford faculty member who founded the university's creative writing program. Ten...
in creative writing. He was a student of poet & critic Yvor Winters
Yvor Winters
Arthur Yvor Winters was an American poet and literary critic.-As modernist:Winters's early poetry, which appeared in small avant-garde magazines alongside work by writers like James Joyce and Gertrude Stein, was written in the modernist idiom, and was heavily influenced both by Native American...
at Stanford.
Early on, Pinsky was inspired by the flow and tension of jazz and the excitement that it made him feel. He said it was an incredible experience that he has tried to reproduce in his poetry. The musicality of poetry was and is extremely important to his work.
He received a National Endowment for the Humanities
National Endowment for the Humanities
The National Endowment for the Humanities is an independent federal agency of the United States established by the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965 dedicated to supporting research, education, preservation, and public programs in the humanities. The NEH is located at...
Fellowship in 1974, and in 1997 he was named the United States Poet Laureate and Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress, being the first and so far only poet to be named to three terms. He now lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...
, and teaches in the graduate writing program at Boston University.
As Poet Laureate, Pinsky founded the Favorite Poem Project, in which thousands of Americans of varying backgrounds, all ages, and from every state share their favorite poems. Pinsky believed that, contrary to stereotype, poetry has a strong presence in the American culture. The project sought to document that presence, giving voice to the American audience for poetry.
Pinsky wrote the libretto for Death and the Powers, a ground-breaking opera by composer Tod Machover
Tod Machover
Tod Machover , is a composer and an innovator in the application of technology in music. He is the son of Wilma Machover, a pianist and Carl Machover, a computer scientist....
. The opera received its world premiere in Monte Carlo in September 2010, and its U.S. premiere at Boston's Cutler Majestic Theater in March 2011.
Pinsky is also the author of the interactive fiction
Interactive fiction
Interactive fiction, often abbreviated IF, describes software simulating environments in which players use text commands to control characters and influence the environment. Works in this form can be understood as literary narratives and as video games. In common usage, the term refers to text...
game Mindwheel (1984) developed by Synapse Software
Synapse Software
Synapse Software Corporation was an American computer game development and publishing company active during the early-1980s. They developed primarily for the Atari 400 and 800 computers, and the Commodore 64 and IBM PCjr...
and released by Broderbund.
Pinsky guest-starred in a 2002 episode of the animated
Animation
Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...
sitcom The Simpsons
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
TV show, "Little Girl in the Big Ten
Little Girl in the Big Ten
"Little Girl in the Big Ten" is the twentieth episode of The Simpsons’ thirteenth season. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on May 12, 2002. In the episode, after seeing John F. Kennedy in a hallucination during gym class, Lisa befriends two college students in order to...
", and appeared on The Colbert Report in April, 2007, as the judge of a "Meta-Free-Phor-All" between Stephen Colbert
Stephen Colbert
Stephen Tyrone Colbert is an American political satirist, writer, comedian, television host, and actor. He is the host of Comedy Central's The Colbert Report, a satirical news show in which Colbert portrays a caricatured version of conservative political pundits.Colbert originally studied to be an...
and Sean Penn
Sean Penn
Sean Justin Penn is an American actor, screenwriter and film director, also known for his political and social activism...
.
Poetry
- Sadness and Happiness (1975)
- An Explanation of America (1981)
- History of My Heart (1984)
- Dying (1984)
- The Want Bone (1990)
- Shirt (1990)
- The Figured Wheel: New and Collected Poems 1966-1996 (1996)
- Jersey Rain (2000)
- Samurai Song (2001)
- Gulf Music: Poems (2007)
- Impossible to tell(...)
Prose
- Landor'sWalter Savage LandorWalter Savage Landor was an English writer and poet. His best known works were the prose Imaginary Conversations, and the poem Rose Aylmer, but the critical acclaim he received from contemporary poets and reviewers was not matched by public popularity...
Poetry (1968) - The Situation of Poetry (1977)
- Poetry and the World Ecco Press,(1988) ISBN 978-0880012164
- The Sounds of Poetry (1998)
- Democracy, Culture, and the Voice of Poetry (2002)
- The Life of David (2006)
- Thousands of Broadways: Dreams and Nightmares of the American Small Town (2009)
As translator
- The Separate Notebooks by Czesław Miłosz, with Renata Gorczynski and Robert Hass (1984)
- The Inferno of Dante: A New Verse Translation (1995)
As editor
- Handbook of Heartbreak (1998)
- Americans' Favorite Poems: The Favorite Poem Project Anthology, with Maggie Dietz (1999)
- Poems to Read (2002)
- An Invitation to Poetry (2004)
- Essential Pleasures: A New Anthology of Poems to Read Aloud (2009)
Honors and awards
- Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of CongressPoet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of CongressThe Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress—commonly referred to as the United States Poet Laureate—serves as the nation's official poet. During his or her term, the Poet Laureate seeks to raise the national consciousness to a greater appreciation of the reading and writing of...
(1997–2000) - National Endowment for the Humanities FellowshipNational Endowment for the HumanitiesThe National Endowment for the Humanities is an independent federal agency of the United States established by the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965 dedicated to supporting research, education, preservation, and public programs in the humanities. The NEH is located at...
(1974) - Stegner Fellowship in Creative Writing at Stanford UniversityStanford UniversityThe Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
- Saxifrage Prize (1980) for An Explanation of America
- William Carlos Williams AwardWilliam Carlos Williams AwardThe William Carlos Williams Award is given out by the Poetry Society of America for a poetry book published by a small press, non-profit, or university press....
of the Poetry Society of America - Nominated for the National Book Critics Circle AwardNational Book Critics Circle AwardThe National Book Critics Circle Award is an annual award given by the National Book Critics Circle to promote the finest books and reviews published in English....
for Criticism (1988) for Poetry and the World - Nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for PoetryPulitzer Prize for PoetryThe Pulitzer Prize in Poetry has been presented since 1922 for a distinguished volume of original verse by an American author. However, special citations for poetry were presented in 1918 and 1919.-Winners:...
(1996) for The Figured Wheel: New and Collected Poems, 1966-1996 - Ambassador Book Award in Poetry of the English Speaking Union
- Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize (1997) for The Figured Wheel: New and Collected Poems 1966-1996
- Los Angeles Times Book Award (1994) for The Inferno of Dante
- Book-of-the-Month Editor's Choice (1994) for The Inferno of Dante
- Academy of American PoetsAcademy of American PoetsThe Academy of American Poets is a non-profit organization dedicated to the art of poetry. The Academy was incorporated as a "membership corporation" in New York State in 1934...
' Translation Award (1994) for The Inferno of Dante
Books and printed materials
- The Art of Poetry LXXVI: Robert Pinsky" The Paris Review No. 144 (1997), 180-213 (interview)
Online Resources
- Boston University Press Release
- Cortland Review Interview with Robert Pinsky
- Modern American Poetry on Robert Pinsky
- The Academy of American Poets on Robert Pinsky
- "Modernism and Memory," Pinsky's lecture from the 2010 Key West Literary Seminar
External links
- Robert Pinsky reads his poem Street Music.
- Essential Pleasures: Robert Pinsky's column on Poems Out Loud (April 2009)
- Interview with Robert Pinsky for Guernica Magazine
- The Favorite Poem Project Site
- IPA: Robert Pinsky reads a selection of his poetry
- Poet Robert Pinsky Takes on King David in a public radio interview on ThoughtCast!ThoughtcastThoughtCast is a Podcast and public radio interview program with authors and academics. The interviews are conducted by Jenny Attiyeh, a former public radio and TV reporter from Manhattan and elsewhere whose previous work focused on covering the arts and ideas...
- Robert Pinsky is the special guest judge for the Sean PennSean PennSean Justin Penn is an American actor, screenwriter and film director, also known for his political and social activism...
vs. Stephen ColbertStephen ColbertStephen Tyrone Colbert is an American political satirist, writer, comedian, television host, and actor. He is the host of Comedy Central's The Colbert Report, a satirical news show in which Colbert portrays a caricatured version of conservative political pundits.Colbert originally studied to be an...
's "Meta-Free-Phor-All: Shall I Nail Thee to a Summer's Day?" Metaphor-Off - Watch Robert Pinsky read "Book" at Open-Door Poetry
- Robert Pinsky's interview about his time and inspirations in Maine