Post by bellehu112 on May 31, 2013 19:15:58 GMT -5
Best known for his poetry that highlights the grim reality of working class citizens, Philip Levine, an esteemed American poet stands before us today. Levine was born in Detroit, Michigan, on January 10, 1928 to immigrant parents of Russian-Jewish ancestry. He grew up in a lower middle class family in the midst of the Great Depression. Levine started to work at a very young age, he can remember his first job at the age of 14, working in an assembly plants of an automobile factory. There he experienced first-hand the long work days and poor working conditions, which later on inspired Levine to infuse the theme of the “voiceless worker” in a majority of his poems. "I saw that the people that I was working with . . . were voiceless in a way. In terms of the literature in the United States they weren't being heard. Nobody was speaking for them. And as young people will, you know, I took this foolish vow that I would speak for them and that's what my life would be. And sure enough I've gone and done it. Or I've tried anyway. . . . I just hope I have the strength to carry it all the way through." Thus Levine devoted his life to creating poetry that gives a voice to the voiceless.
Levine finally decided to further his education and attend Wayne State University in Detroit where he went on to receive his B.A and M.A, but this was only the start of his acclaimed career. Shortly after he was accepted into the most prestigious writing programs in the country, the Iowa Writer’s Workshop.
In 1961, Levine published his first volume of poetry, On the Edge. During the 1960s, Levine's fascination with Spanish literature and more specifically poet Federico Garcia Lorca drove him to pack up his life in Detroit and to move to Spain. The Spanish way of life became a focal point of his career and the topic of most of his poetry.
In 1979 Levine’s career really began to take off as he received both the American Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Prize for Ashes (1979). And similarly, shortly after the publication of What Work Is he earned both the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the National Book Award for Poetry. Levine won the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry for The Simple Truth in 1994 and was named poet laureate of the United States. As you can see Levine has made quite a splash in the world of literature, and we are truly lucky to have him standing before us today.
For more than three decades, Levine has spoken for the workingmen and women of America's industrial cities. As Joan Taylor writes in the Dictionary of Literary Biography: "Levine met his enemy in the gray arenas of industrialism . . . of factory hum and stink, vacant lots, junkyards, and railroad tracks. . . . Levine's hero is the lonely individual who tries and often fails within this big industrial machine." According to Richard Tillinghast in the New York Times Book Review the speaker in Levine's poems "is never a blue-collar caricature, but someone with brains, feelings and a free-wheeling imagination that constantly fights to free him from his prosaic environment."
It is with great honor that I introduce to you the esteemed poet, Philip Levine.
Word Count: 561
Levine finally decided to further his education and attend Wayne State University in Detroit where he went on to receive his B.A and M.A, but this was only the start of his acclaimed career. Shortly after he was accepted into the most prestigious writing programs in the country, the Iowa Writer’s Workshop.
In 1961, Levine published his first volume of poetry, On the Edge. During the 1960s, Levine's fascination with Spanish literature and more specifically poet Federico Garcia Lorca drove him to pack up his life in Detroit and to move to Spain. The Spanish way of life became a focal point of his career and the topic of most of his poetry.
In 1979 Levine’s career really began to take off as he received both the American Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Prize for Ashes (1979). And similarly, shortly after the publication of What Work Is he earned both the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the National Book Award for Poetry. Levine won the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry for The Simple Truth in 1994 and was named poet laureate of the United States. As you can see Levine has made quite a splash in the world of literature, and we are truly lucky to have him standing before us today.
For more than three decades, Levine has spoken for the workingmen and women of America's industrial cities. As Joan Taylor writes in the Dictionary of Literary Biography: "Levine met his enemy in the gray arenas of industrialism . . . of factory hum and stink, vacant lots, junkyards, and railroad tracks. . . . Levine's hero is the lonely individual who tries and often fails within this big industrial machine." According to Richard Tillinghast in the New York Times Book Review the speaker in Levine's poems "is never a blue-collar caricature, but someone with brains, feelings and a free-wheeling imagination that constantly fights to free him from his prosaic environment."
It is with great honor that I introduce to you the esteemed poet, Philip Levine.
Word Count: 561