Robert Pinsky, former U.S. poet laureate, is among several writers who will be featured at the 2014 UND Writers Conference in April, according to the university.
Pinsky was poet laureate for an unprecedented three terms from 1997 to 2000, during which he founded the Favorite Poem Project, which featured the favorite poems of thousands of Americans, UND said.
"His tenure was marked by ambitious efforts to prove the power of poetry -- not just as an intellectual pursuit in the ivory tower, but as a meaningful and integral part of American life," according to his biography at the Poetry Foundation.
The conference will also feature Jessica Lott, a New York City-based fiction and arts writer, and Sarah Leavitt, a Vancouver, B.C., -based writer, editor and cartoonist, UND said.
'The Simpsons'
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"Poetry's highest purpose is to provide a unique sensation of coordination between the intelligence, emotions and the body," Pinsky once told the Christian Science Monitor. "It's one of the most fundamental pleasures a person can experience."
He has published several collections of poetry, one of which, "The Figured Wheel: New and Collected Poems 1966-1996," was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.
Pinsky is also acclaimed for his translations of Dante's "Inferno," the 14th century epic poem, for which he received the Los Angeles Times Book Prize.
"Despite the fact that about fifty English-language translations of the Inferno have been published in the 20th century alone, critics largely celebrated Pinsky's work," the Poetry Foundation said.
Pinsky is also one of a few members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters to have appeared on "The Simpsons," according to UND. He appeared as himself in "Little Girl in the Big Ten" in which Lisa Simpson, Bart's intellectual sister, pretends to be a college student and attends a poetry ready featuring Pinsky.
He's currently teaching the graduate writing program at Boston University.
Other writers
Pinsky's feallow featured writer, Jessica Lott, has written a novella, "Osin," and just published her first novel, "The Rest of Us," through Simon & Schuster. Her short fiction, essays and art reviews have been published in "The New York Times" and "The Modern Spectator."
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She's also taught writing at universities and workshops and consults on art catalogues for the Brooklyn Museum and New Museum.
Leavitt's first book, an illustrated memoir called "Tangles: A Story About Alzheimer's, My Mother and Me," was published in 2012. Her cartoons and prose have been featured in anthologies, magazines and newspapers in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom.
On the Web: For more about the UND Writers Conference, go to undwritersconference.org.
