Educated at Rutgers and Stanford Universities, Robert Pinsky was influenced by a number of ideas and movements, perhaps above all else that of musicality. As a keen player of the saxophone in his youth, Pinsky created poetry that has a detectable musical, rhythmic quality to it, a technique that has earned him many fans and plaudits in his long career. His success as a poet - he has published some 19 books since starting out - explains why, in 1997, he was appointed to the role of Poet Laureate Consultant to the Library of Congress which, in other words, means he was the National Poet of America, a role in which he served until 2000.
Alongside his poetic work, Pinsky has worked as a translator, and written essays for a number of well-known magazines and literary journals and publications. Eager to share with everyone what he sees as poetry's remarkable ability to affect us all, in his time as Poet Laureate he initiated the 'Favourite Poem Project' through which Americans of all races, ages and socio-economic backgrounds could share with each other their love of poetry. As a mark of his uniqueness, to this day he remains the only poet in history to be hold the role of Poet Laureate Consultant for three terms.
