IN
Philip Levine was born in 1928 in Detroit and was formally educated there, in the public schools and at Wayne University (now Wayne State University). After a succession of industrial jobs, he left the city for good and lived in various parts of the country before settling in Fresno, California, where he taught at the state university until his retirement. For twelve autumns he served as poet in residence at New York University. He has received many awards for his books of poems, including the National Book Award in 1991 for What Work Is and the Pulitzer Prize in 1995 for The Simple Truth. In 2011 he was appointed Poet Laureate of the United States. He divides his time between Fresno, California, and Brooklyn, New York.
“What Work Is gives a hymn-like quality to its eulogies and
elegies. Levine’s voice frequently blurs the line between poetic
utterance and prayer . . . His lyrical compassion, anger, and
hopefulness make him one of the most authentically moving poets of
our age.”
—Phoebe Pettingell, The New Leader
“It didn’t seem possible that Levine could improve on his first
working-class portraits, yet I feel these new poems are an
improvement: an extra dimension of dignity has been conferred on
his characters . . . the poems ‘Fear and Fame,’ ‘Coming Close,’
‘Every Blessed Day,’ and the title poem are perhaps the most moving
that Levine has written—tender without being sentimental, calm but
not lacking in passion, written in a diction as clear and lucid as
spring water.”
—Alfred Corn, The Washington Post Book World
“Since the early 1960s Philip Levine has articulated in poetry the
lives of the men and women who run machines, punch the time clocks,
and work the assembly lines . . . What Work Is makes some of its
severest poetry out of wounds inflicted on workers and the
environments by manufacturing . . . New Selected Poems published
simultaneously reminds us that he has been our preeminent poet of
working life for several decades.”
—Richard Tillinghast, The New York Times Book Review
"What Work Is gives a hymn-like quality to its eulogies and
elegies. Levine's voice frequently blurs the line between poetic
utterance and prayer . . . His lyrical compassion, anger, and
hopefulness make him one of the most authentically moving poets of
our age."
-Phoebe Pettingell, The New Leader
"It didn't seem possible that Levine could improve on his first
working-class portraits, yet I feel these new poems are an
improvement: an extra dimension of dignity has been conferred on
his characters . . . the poems 'Fear and Fame,' 'Coming Close,'
'Every Blessed Day,' and the title poem are perhaps the most moving
that Levine has written-tender without being sentimental, calm but
not lacking in passion, written in a diction as clear and lucid as
spring water."
-Alfred Corn, The Washington Post Book World
"Since the early 1960s Philip Levine has articulated in poetry the
lives of the men and women who run machines, punch the time clocks,
and work the assembly lines . . . What Work Is makes some of
its severest poetry out of wounds inflicted on workers and the
environments by manufacturing . . . New Selected Poems
published simultaneously reminds us that he has been our preeminent
poet of working life for several decades."
-Richard Tillinghast, The New York Times Book Review
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