Robert Hass

Robert Hass is a poet, essayist and translator who has taught at the University of California, Berkeley, and served as Poet Laureate of the United States. Much of his poetry is rooted in the landscapes of Northern California, from San Francisco and the coast to the Sierra high country.

His collections include Sun Under Wood, a 1996 National Book Award finalist, and Time and Materials (2007), his first book of poems in a decade, which won the 2007 National Book Award for Poetry. Alongside his own poems, he has worked for many years as a translator, most notably of the poetry of Czesław Miłosz, a collaboration that lasted about two decades, and of the Swedish poet Tomas Tranströmer. He has also written criticism and served as a newspaper poetry columnist.

His work joins close observation of the natural world with reflection on art, history, desire and the limits of language.