Robert Pinsky ( October 20, 1940 , Long Branch , New Jersey , USA ) - American poet , essayist, literary critic , translator. From 1997 to 2000, he served as a poet laureate and poetry consultant at the Library of Congress. Pinski is the author of nineteen books, most of which are collections of his own poems. His published works also include critical translations, including collections of poems by Cheslav Milos and Dante Alighieri . He currently teaches at Boston University and is editor of Slate Magazine.
| Robert Pinsky | |
|---|---|
| Robert Pinsky | |
 May 15, 2005 | |
| Date of Birth | October 20, 1940 (78 years old) |
| Place of Birth | Long Branch ( New Jersey , USA ) |
| Citizenship | USA |
| Occupation | poet , literary critic , translator |
| Years of creativity | since 1968 |
| Genre | poem, poem, literary criticism, prose |
| Language of Works | English |
| Awards | Guggenheim Fellowship |
Biography
Robert Pinsky was born on October 20, 1940 into a Jewish family in Long Branch, New Jersey . He graduated from the Long Branch High School [1] . He received his bachelor's degree from Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and later a master's and doctorate from Stanford University , where he was a Fellow of the Stegner Fellowship. He was a student of the poet and critic Ivor Winters at Stanford.
In the early years, Pinski was inspired by the flow and tension of jazz and the excitement caused by him. As a former saxophonist, he said that playing music was a deeply influential experience, which he tried to reproduce in his poems. The musicality of poetry has always been extremely important for his work. In 1999, in an interview with Bomb Magazine Pinski said that he loves jazz for "physical immediacy, improvisation, as well as a sense of suffering, research, thoughts and feelings in one phrase."
Instead of trying to convey a single and concrete meaning for his work, Pinski expects his poetry to be interpreted depending on the subjective view of each reader. Supporting the idea that the individuality of people would fill the poem, he said: “The poetry that I love is written for someone’s voice, and I believe that the proper culmination for her is reading with her voice. And the human voice in this sense does not mechanically reproduce or reinforce it; this is actually a living breath within the body - not necessarily a re-perception, not necessarily an exposition of an expert or artist. Whoever reads the poem, he becomes the right medium for him. "
Robert Pinsky received the National Humanitarian Fund Award in 1974, and in 1997 he was named a poet laureate, poetry consultant at the Library of Congress, and subsequently became the first poet to hold this post for three terms. He lives in Cambridge ( Massachusetts ) and teaches at the graduate school of writing at Boston University.
As a laureate poet, Pinsky founded the Beloved Poem project, in which thousands of Americans from different states share favorite poems with each other. Pinsky believes that, contrary to stereotypes, poetry has a strong position in American culture. The aim of the project was to confirm this by giving voice to the American audience of poetry.
In 2010, Pinski wrote the libretto for Death and the Powers, the groundbreaking opera by composer Tod Macover. The world premiere of the opera took place in Monte Carlo in September 2010, and the US premiere at the Boston Cutler Majestic Theater in March 2011.
Robert Pinsky is the author of the interactive science fiction game Mindwheel (1984), developed by Software Synapse and released by Brøderbund .
In 2002, Pinski was a guest actor in the episode of the Simpsons animated series “Little Girl in the Big Ten,” and in April 2007, appeared on The Colbert Report as the judge for Meta-Free-Phor-All between Stephen Colbert and Sean Penn .
Works
CD
- PoemJazz (2012)
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)
- "ABC" (1998)
- Jersey Rain (2000)
- Samurai Song (2001)
- Gulf Music: Poems (2007)
- Impossible to tell (...)
Prose
- Landor's Poetry (1968)
- The Situation of Poetry (1977)
- Poetry and the World Ecco Press, (1988) ISBN 978-0-88001-216-4
- 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)
Libretto
- Death and the Powers, opera Tod Makover (2010)
Games
- Mindwheel (1984)
Translations
- The Separate Notebooks by Czesław Miłosz, with Renata Gorczynski and Robert Hass (1984)
- The Inferno of Dante: A New Verse Translation (1995)
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)
Awards and Prizes
- PEN / Voelcker Award 2004
- Poet Laureate, poetry consultant at the Library of Congress (1997-2000)
- National Humanitarian Fund Award (1974)
- Saxifrage Award for Explaining America (1980)
- William Carlos Williams Poetry Award of America
- Critics Circle Book Award Nominee for Poetry and the World (1988)
- Pulitzer Prize Nominee for Poetry for Figured Wheel: New and Collected Poems (1996)
- English Poetry Ambassador Book Award
- Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize for "The Figured Wheel: New and Collected Poems" (1997)
- Los Angeles Times Book Award for "The Inferno of Dante" (1994)
- Book-of-the-Month Editor's Choice for "The Inferno of Dante" (1994)
- Academy of American Poets' Translation Award for "The Inferno of Dante" (1994)
Notes
- ↑ D'Amato, Anthony. Jersey: "The Most American State?" (eng.) . New Jersey Monthly (May 7, 2010). Date of treatment August 19, 2014.
Links
- Ben Downing, Daniel Kunitz. Robert Pinsky, The Art of Poetry No. 76 (Eng.) // The Paris Review : magazine.
- 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!
- Robert Pinsky is the special guest judge for the Sean Penn vs. Stephen Colbert '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