Former United States Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky, often described as "the people's poet," will visit Duke University Oct. 26 to speak about the relationship between poetry and modern American culture.

The free, public event will be at 3:30 p.m. Oct. 26 in Page Auditorium on Duke's West Campus. Pinsky's talk will be followed by an audience question-and-answer session and a book signing and reception.

Pinsky, who was poet laureate from 1997 to 2000, is author of "The Figured Wheel: New and Collected Poems 1965-1995," which received the Lenore Marshall Award and the Ambassador Book Award of the English Speaking Union, and the book-length poem "An Explanation of America."

Pinsky also is a contributor to the "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer" on PBS, is poetry editor of the online journal "Slate," and teaches in the graduate writing program at Boston University. Numerous collections of Pinsky's poems have been published, along with many of his essays and translations.

As poet laureate, Pinsky maintained a high profile, spreading his message of poetry's widespread appeal. His Favorite Poems Project asked ordinary people to submit their favorite poem with a statement on what it meant to them. Some were selected to read their poems on "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer," and later were collected in the anthology, "America's Favorite Poems."

"If Robert Pinsky is one of the most important poets in America today, it is because no other poet has written as inclusively or memorably about the improvised, heterogeneous nature of the desires, loves and commitments that make us who we are, " said Alan Shapiro, English professor and poet at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Pinsky's talk at Duke is sponsored by the Duke University Union Major Speakers Committee.