Robert Pinsky is an award-winning American poet, essayist, and translator. He has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for poetry and the National Book Critics Circle Award for criticism. He served for three terms as the U.S. Poet Laureate, during which time he founded the Favorite Poem Project. His many books include Robert Pinsky: The First Two Books of Poems (Princeton) and the memoir Jersey Breaks: Becoming an American Poet. His bestselling translation of Dante's Inferno won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Among his other awards and honors are the William Carlos Williams Award, the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize, the PEN/Voelcker Award, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the PEN American Center, and the Harold Washington Award from the City of Chicago. He is distinguished professor emeritus of English and creative writing at Boston University.