Robert Pinsky
U.S. Poet Laureate, 1997

Robert Pinsky was appointed the U. S. Poet Laureate in 1997. Pinsky is the poetry editor for the online magazine Slate and teaches creative writing at Boston University.

No other place could have matched the literary education I received from teachers like Francis Fergusson and Paul Fussell, with peers and classmates like Alan Cheuse, Henry Dumas, Peter Najarian. With the vigor and reach of an American land-grant university and a long tradition, near New York but not in it, Rutgers was a wonderful place to begin a lifelong commitment to the art of writing."