The American civic poet… strives not only to speak to us with vigor and sympathy in our common language, but also to reveal how crucial that language is to our struggles and hopes as citizens. Pinsky is our finest living specimen of this sadly rare breed, and the poems of “Gulf Music” are among the best examples we have of poetry’s ability to illuminate not only who we are as humans, but who we are — and can be — as a nation.”
— The New York Times Book Review
Latest News
"Angel of Retail" Published in The New Yorker
Robert’s poem “Angel of Retail” appears in The New Yorker. Read it here.
“Robert Pinsky belongs to that rarest category of talents, a poet-critic.”—Robert Lowell
Robert's Books Republished by Princeton University Press
The First Two Books of Poems and On Poetry, Culture and Democracy are OUT NOW with Princeton University Press. Visit the links to pre-order copies. Each feature new prefaces by Robert.
“Robert Pinsky belongs to that rarest category of talents, a poet-critic.”—Robert Lowell
"Misrule Music" Published in the Atlantic
Robert’s newest poem, “Misrule Music,” appears in The Atlantic. Read it here. Robert will perform this poem as part of his April 12th, 2026 PoemJazz performance at Regattabar. Purchase tickets here.
Review of "The Poems of Seamus Heaney"
Robert’s review of “The Poems of Seamus Heaney,” edited by Rosie Lavan and Bernard O’Donoghue in collaboration with Matthew Hollis, was published in The New York Times.
Proverbs of Limbo now in paperback from Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Robert Pinsky’s newest collection of poetry Proverbs of Limbo published June 11, 2024 from Farrar, Straus and Giroux is now available in paperback. “Robert Pinsky, one of our most ambitious, inventive, and finely tuned poets, takes an original approach to the fraught, central matter of borders in Proverbs of Limbo, his first new book of poetry in eight years.” FSG
Order copies here.
"Samurai Song" in Family Guy
Lines from Robert’s poem “Samurai Song” are quoted in an episode of the television series Family Guy.
New piece in The Nation
“Declared Intention”: My Immigration Story, and Ours
The complaint about us poets is that we make everything too complicated. When the world needs something like a simple protest song or something patriotic, we mutter vaguely about different ways to look at a thing.
Immigration, for example. Is it fundamentally the same today as it was for my grandparents, or completely different? Or if somewhere in between, then where, exactly?
The full essay can be found here.
New Poem “Astounding Stories” in the New Yorker
Astounding Stories
Fear of the foreign and the fear of being foreign.
Terror of nuns from the Star of the Sea Lyceum
Afloat in hooded habits with punishing rulers.
Difference. Wanting “someone who looks like me”
Is different in different spaces. Jews in Der Stürmer
Don’t look like Paul Newman or Lauren Bacall.
The full poem can be found here.
Ron Slate reviews Jersey Breaks in On The Seawall
Full article here.
“Jersey Breaks is largely about insisting on having things your own way and getting away with it. Such was the example set by grandfather Dave Pinsky, Prohibition bootlegger, then bar proprietor. Young Robert was a mediocre student, or rather, he was an avid reader who spurned the orthodoxies of schooling.”
—Ron Slate, On The Seawall
Robert Pinsky’s new autobiography Jersey Breaks released October 11th from W.W. Norton & Company.
Order copies here.
Jersey Breaks preview “Change Trains at Summit” now in The Yale Review
Read Pinsky’s new essay “Change Trains at Summit” in The Yale Review.
“Given my background, a dear friend recently asked me, How is it that I became a poet rather than a criminal or an optometrist?
I could quibble. My father, Milford Pinsky, was an optician, not an optometrist. (A common mistake.) And it’s true that his father, Dave Pinsky, was a criminal. But as my aunt Thelma used to say, her pop was in the liquor business, and it happened to be during Prohibition. That was the era when Dave, my Zaydee Pop, as I called him, pursued the liquor business in our hometown, Long Branch, New Jersey.”
—ROBERT PINSKY
Events
Friday, March 6th, 2026
In the Writers’ Studio: Robert Pinsky and William Miller
This fireside chat will include a discussion, audience participation, food, wine, and a mini lesson on craft. Doors open at 7:30pm with a wine and food reception. The chat will be from 8:30-9:30pm.
Sunday, April 18th, 2026
PoemJazz at Regattabar
Doors at 5:30pm; event starts at 6pm. General Admission tickets start at $35; student tickets, $25.
Tuesday, April 28th, 2026
Robert Pinsky and Dan Chiasson: A Conversation at Boston University
This event will be held at 5pm. A book signing and reception will follow.
Date TBD: June 2026
Robert Pinsky Delivers Keynote at Yetzirah Jewish Poetry Conference
Public events will take place Tuesday, June 16th through Friday, June 19th. Stay tuned for more information about this event.