Philip Levine (poet)

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name = Philip Levine

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caption = Reading on 16 September 2006
birth_date = birth date and age|1928|1|10|
birth_place = Detroit, Michigan
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known_for = Award winning poet
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Philip Levine (b. January 10, 1928, Detroit, Michigan) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American poet. He taught for many years at California State University, Fresno. More recently he is the Distinguished Poet in Residence for the Creative Writing Program at New York University.

Levine grew up in industrial Detroit. The familial, social, and economic world of 20th century Detroit is one of the major subjects of his life's work. His portraits of working class Americans and his continuous examination of his Jewish immigrant inheritance (both based on real life and described through fictional characters) has left a monumental testimony of mid-20th century American life. It can be best found in books such as "They Feed the Lion," the National Book Award-winning "What Work Is," "A Walk with Tom Jefferson," and in his "New Selected Poems." Growing up, Levine faced the anti-Semitism embodied by a local celebrity, the pro-Hitler radio priest Father Coughlin.

Levine began to write poetry while he was going to night school at Wayne University (now Wayne State University) in Detroit and working days at one of that city's automobile manufacturing plants. Levine's working experience lent his poetry a profound skepticism in regard to conventional American ideals. In his first two books, "On the Edge" (1963) and "Not This Pig" (1968), the poetry dwells on those who suddenly become aware they are trapped in some murderous processes not of their own making.

In his first two books, Levine was somewhat traditional in form and relatively constrained in expression. Beginning with "They Feed They Lion", Levine's poems are typically free-verse monologues tending toward trimeter or tetrameter. The music of Levine's poetry depends on tension between his line-breaks and his syntax. The title poem of Levine's book "1933" (1974) is a good example of the cascade of clauses and phrases one finds in his poetry.

On November 29, 2007 a tribute was held in New York City in anticipation of Levine's 80th birthday. Among those celebrating Levine's career by reading Levine's work were Yusef Komunyakaa, Galway Kinnell, E. L. Doctorow, Charles Wright, Jean Valentine, and Sharon Olds. Levine himself read several new poems. He thanked his students and asked them to refrain from asking for any more letters of recommendation.

elected Works

* [http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15319 "Coming Close"]
* [http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/16509 "Drum"]
* [http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/16503 "Gospel"]
* [http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/16504 "On 52nd Street"]
* [http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/16505 "The Two"]

Volumes

*"Breath" (2004)
*"The Mercy" (1999)
*"Unselected Poems" (1997)
*"The Simple Truth" (1994)
*"What Work Is" (1991)
*"New Selected Poems" (1991)
*"A Walk With Tom Jefferson" (1988)
*"Sweet Will" (1985)
*"Selected Poems" (1984)
*"One for the Rose" (1981)
*"7 Years From Somewhere" (1979)
*"Ashes: Poems New and Old" (1979)
*"The Names of the Lost" (1976)
*"1933" (1974)
*"They Feed They Lion" (1972)
*"Red Dust" (1971)
*"Pili's Wall" (1971)
*"Not This Pig" (1968)
*"On the Edge" (1963)

Essays

*"The Bread of Time" (1994)

Translations

*"Off the

*"Tarumba: The Selected Poems of Jaime Sabines", edited and translated With Ernesto Trejo (1979)

Interviews

*"Don't Ask" (1981)

Awards

*1995 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry - "The Simple Truth"
*1991 National Book Award - "What Work Is"
*1979 National Book Critics Circle Award "Ashes: Poems New and Old"
*1979 American Book Award for Poetry - "Ashes: Poems New and Old"
*1979 National Book Critics Circle Award - "7 Years from Somewhere"
*1975 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize "The Names of the Lost"
*1987 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize
*Harriet Monroe Memorial Prize from Poetry
*Frank O'Hara Prize
*Two Guggenheim Foundation fellowships

External links

* [http://www.libcom.org/history/levine-philip-1928 Biography of Philip Levine] - looking in detail at his politics and his anarchism
* [http://www.blackbird.vcu.edu/v1n1/poetry/levine_p/levine_p.htm Blackbird Archive] "Breakfasts with Joachim" by Philip Levine, published in "Blackbird", an online journal of literature and the arts.
* [http://www.ibiblio.org/ipa/levine.php Internet Poetry Archive]

References

* [http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/g_l/levine/levine.htm] Modern American Poetry
* [http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/g_l/levine/life.htm] Modern American Poetry - About Philip Levine
* [http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/g_l/levine/life.htm] Modern American Poetry - About Philip Levine
* [http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/g_l/levine/biblio.htm] Modern American Poetry - Bibliography
* [http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/g_l/levine/lion.htm] Modern American Poetry - Criticism for "They Feed The Lion"
* [http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/19]
*Sex and style in contemporary American poetry. (Longenbach, James, Raritan, 0275-1607, March 1, 2000, Vol. 19, Issue 4)

Persondata
NAME= Levine, Philip
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION= Award winning American poet
DATE OF BIRTH= January 10, 1928
PLACE OF BIRTH= Detroit, Michigan
DATE OF DEATH=
PLACE OF DEATH=