Librarian of Congress James H. Billington today announced the appointment of Philip Levine as the Library\'s 18th Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry for 2011-2012. \"Philip Levine is one of America\'s great narrative poets,\" Billington said. \"His plainspoken lyricism has, for half a century, championed the art of telling \'The Simple Truth\'-about working in a Detroit auto factory, as he has, and about the hard work we do to make sense of our lives.\" Born in Detroit on Jan. 10, 1928, Levine received degrees from Wayne State University and the University of Iowa Writer\'s Workshop, and in 1957 was awarded the Jones Fellowship in Poetry at Stanford.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2011/08/10/prweb8708263.DTL#ixzz1UchbFbz6
http://www.freep.com/article/20110810/NEWS01/110810005/Detroit-native-become-U-S-poet-laureate?odyssey=tab%7Ctopnews%7Ctext%7CFRONTPAGE
http://www.detnews.com/article/20110810/METRO/108100385/1361/Detroit-native-Philip-Levine-to-become-U.S.-poet-laureate
http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/profile-of-philip-levine-poet-laureate/2011/08/08/gIQAg6xf5I_story.html