Levine grew up in Detroit and began his working life in car manufacturing plants at the age of 14. Later earning an MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop, he has gone on to publish 20 poetry collections, and has received multiple awards such as the 1995 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for The Simple Truth, the National Book Award for Poetry, the National Book Circle Critics Award, the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize and the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, among others.
“We’re absolutely thrilled to have Phil Levine visiting," said Graeme Harper, director of The Honors College. “Not only does he have personal connections to southeast Michigan, he is one of the most significant poets currently writing in America. It is a privilege to be working with our colleagues to welcome Phil Levine to our campus. Oakland alums are warmly welcome to attend his reading, which I know will be fabulous.”
The Maurice Brown Memorial Poetry Reading pays tribute to Professor Maurice F. Brown, who taught at Oakland University from 1961 until his death in 1985.
The event is sponsored
by The Honors College, the Department of English, the Department of
Writing and Rhetoric, the Meadow Brook Writing Project, Kresge Library
and The Honors College Echo.
For more information, contact The Honors College at (248) 370-4450.