Former Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky Receives Lifetime Achievement Honor

Former poet laureate Robert Pinsky will receive a lifetime achievement award from the PEN writers group in California Tuesday night.

Pinsky, a Boston University professor, told BU Today that the $1,000 award is special because of PEN's dual role as a literary and human rights organization. “Its mission includes work for freedom of expression and efforts on behalf of imprisoned or threatened writers around the world," Pinksy said. "That’s a particularly gratifying and, in a way, humbling aspect of this award.”

Pinsky is the author of eight collections of poetry, but he is also well-known as an advocate for poetry, especially for reading poems aloud.