Robert Polito

Poet and scholar Robert Polito has served as director of Creative Writing at The New School for two decades. Polito became the second president of the Poetry Foundation in July 2013. Polito’s collections of poetry include Hollywood & God (2009) and Doubles (1995). Polito’s scholarly works include A Reader’s Guide to James Merrill’s The Changing Light at Sandover (1995), andSavage Art: A Biography of Jim Thompson (1996), for which he received the National Book Critics Circle Award. He is the recipient of numerous honors and awards including fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the Ingram Merrill Foundation. A contributing editor to both BOMB and the Boston Review, Polito’s poetry and criticism have been published widely. He is at work on a new book titled Detours: Seven Noir Lives.