Skip to Main Content
Boston University
  • Bostonia
  • BU Today
  • The Brink
  • University Publications

    • Bostonia
    • BU Today
    • The Brink
  • School & College Publications

    • The Record
Other Publications
BU Today
  • Sections
News, Opinion, Community

Words, Sounds, and Music from the Gulf

CAS Prof Pinsky’s new poetry collection out today

Click on the video above to hear Robert Pinsky read a poem from his new book.

The most recent book of poetry by three-time U.S. poet laureate Robert Pinsky, a College of Arts and Sciences professor of English, takes readers out of the author’s native New Jersey, terrain he visited in 2000’s Jersey Rain, his last poetry collection. Gulf Music ventures into the American South, the Middle East, Guantánamo Bay, and other locales that have demanded the public’s attention in the seven years since Jersey Rain was published.

Gulf Music, published today by Farrar Strauss and Giroux, is Pinsky’s seventh volume of poetry; early praise from Booklist calls the work “ravishing” and Pinsky “serious and seriously funny,” while Publisher’s Weekly describes it as “a carefully tuned yet impassioned vision of a past-haunted present where lessons of history remain unlearned and individuals struggle for comprehension amid atrocities.”

In addition to Jersey Rain, Pinsky’s previous works of poetry are The Figured Wheel: New and Collected Poems, 1966–1996, winner of the 1997 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize and a Pulitzer Prize nominee; The Want Bone; History of My Heart; An Explanation of America; and Sadness and Happiness. He has also published four books of criticism, The Sounds of Poetry, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award; Poetry and the World; The Situation of Poetry; and Democracy, Culture, and the Voice of Poetry; two books of translation, The Inferno of Dante, which received the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the Harold Morton Landon Translation Award; and The Separate Notebooks by Czeslaw Milosz (with Renata Gorczynski and Robert Hass); a prose book, The Life of David; and a computerized novel, Mindwheel.

In the video above, Pinsky reads “Poem of Disconnected Parts,” which opens Gulf Music, at the Robert Lowell Memorial Lecture in April 2007. The late writer and feminist Grace Paley was the featured speaker, introduced by Pinsky, and Samantha Mineo Myers (GRS’02), a CAS Writing Program lecturer, read four short poems.

The Robert Lowell Memorial Lecture series brings distinguished poets to Boston University to read alongside a member of the Creative Writing Program faculty and a recent graduate of the program.

 Jessica Ullian can be reached at jullian@bu.edu.

Explore Related Topics:

  • Literature
  • Poetry
  • Share this story

Share

Words, Sounds, and Music from the Gulf

Share

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Reddit
  • LinkedIn
  • Email
  • Jessica Ullian

    Jessica Ullian Profile

Latest from BU Today

  • Things-to-do

    Our List of Outdoor Concerts to Enjoy This Summer

  • Arts & Culture

    This CFA Student Is Using Art to Help Medical Patients

  • Film & TV

    Why Do We Keep Watching Reality Dating Shows?

  • University News

    Boston University Announces Budget Cuts, Layoffs Amid Financial Pressures

  • Social Media

    COM Class Teaches Students How to Promote Their Content Online

  • Things-to-do

    How to Spend the July Fourth Weekend in Boston

  • Things-to-do

    Best Places to Watch Fireworks in Boston This Fourth of July

  • 25 Charles River Campus Faculty Receive Promotions

  • Books

    With Summer Officially Here, 10 Great Beach Reads

  • Things-to-do

    Want to Beat the Summer Heat? Check Out One of the Boston Area’s Many Public Pools

  • Business & Law

    BU Legal Scholars Assess Supreme Court Ruling Limiting Nationwide Injunctions

  • Film & TV

    Learning Through Screen Time

  • University News

    Boston University to Seek External Recommendations for Athletics Policies and Practices

  • University News

    BU’s Jack Parker Elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame

  • BU Soundcheck

    BU Soundcheck: Ronona J

  • Film & TV

    COM Students Win New England Emmy Award for 2024 BUTV10 Election Coverage

  • Watch Now

    How BU’s Lawns Can Help Reduce Carbon Emissions

  • Awards

    Meet BU’s Newest Fulbright Recipients

  • Local

    Where to Watch Free Movies Outdoors All Summer Long

  • University News

    BU Opens Cooling Stations as First Heat Wave of the Season Arrives

Section navigation

  • Sections
  • Must Reads
  • Videos
  • Series
  • Close-ups
  • Archives
  • About + Contact
Get Our Email

Explore Our Publications

Bostonia

Boston University’s Alumni Magazine

BU Today

News, Opinion, Community

The Brink

Pioneering Research from Boston University

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
  • Instagram
  • Weibo
  • TikTok
© Boston University. All rights reserved. www.bu.edu
© 2025 Trustees of Boston UniversityPrivacy StatementAccessibility
Boston University
Notice of Non-Discrimination: Boston University prohibits discrimination and harassment on the basis of race, color, natural or protective hairstyle, religion, sex or gender, age, national origin, ethnicity, shared ancestry and ethnic characteristics, physical or mental disability, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, genetic information, pregnancy or pregnancy-related condition, military service, marital, parental, veteran status, or any other legally protected status in any and all educational programs or activities operated by Boston University. Retaliation is also prohibited. Please refer questions or concerns about Title IX, discrimination based on any other status protected by law or BU policy, or retaliation to Boston University’s Executive Director of Equal Opportunity/Title IX Coordinator, at titleix@bu.edu or (617) 358-1796. Read Boston University’s full Notice of Nondiscrimination.
Search
Boston University Masterplate
loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.
Words, Sounds, and Music from the Gulf
0
share this