Tonight Pulitzer Prize winning poet Philip Levine reads at Pacific Standard, the new California style micro brewery with an  excellent reading series. 82 Fourth Avenue between Bergen and St. Marks at 7:30 p.m.

NEWS OF THE WORLD is the 20th
collection of poetry from Philip Levine, a Pulitzer Prize-winner and two-time
recipient of the National Book Award. Joyce Carol Oates has heralded his work “extraordinary”
and the New York Times Book Review
has recognized Philip Levine as a true “great American poet.”

Born in Detroit, the son of Russian-Jewish immigrants, Philip Levine met his
muse while working in the city’s auto plants in the 1950’s. “I saw that the
people that I was working with . . . were voiceless in a way,” he explained in Detroit Magazine. “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.” Five decades later, Levine’s vow has culminated in an
astonishing, award-winning and ever-evolving body of work.
 
In this latest effort, NEWS OF THE WORLD, Philip Levine brings us news from
everywhere: from Detroit, where exhausted workers try to find a decent
breakfast after the late shift, and Henry Ford, “supremely bored” in his
mansion, clocks in at one of his plants . . . from Spain, where a woman sings a
song that rises at dawn, like the dust of ages, through an open window. . .
from Andorra, where an old Communist can now supply you with anything you want—a
French radio, a Cadillac, or, if you have a week, an American film star. The
language continually skirts obscurity and remains accessible, clear and
poignant. As Richard Hugo noted in the American
Poetry Review, through Levine’s poetry “we hear and we care.” Publishers Weekly promises that “fans
will happily get what they came for” in this rich, deeply felt new collection.