Kassie Charnley
Staff Reporter
Philip Levine, the eighteenth U.S. Poet Laureate for 2011-2012, will open this year’s Gwen Frostic Reading Series, a program that presents acclaimed creative writers from across the nation will hold its first event of the school year on Friday, Sept. 28 at 8 p.m. in room 2000 of Schneider Hall.
Dustin Hoffman, Assistant Coordinator of the Gwen Frostic Reading Series, said that this event has been in the works since last school year.
“We are lucky to be able to have Philip Levine speak and read at WMU. We couldn’t pass up the opportunity to have him here,” Hoffman said.
Philip Levine was born in 1928 in Detroit. He is the author of 20 collections of poetry, some of which will be available to purchase at the reading.
Hoffman said that Levine is a poet of the working class.
“As a Detroit, Michigan native and having worked in the GM factories, Levine knows what it’s like to work in those conditions. Levine is able to give the working class a voice through his poetry.”
“I believe we are one of the first universities to have Philip Levine speak and read at an event on campus,” Hoffman said. “If students must attend a reading of any kind this semester, it should be this one.”
As Assistant Coordinator, Hoffman is looking forward to hearing Levine speak and read next Friday as he believes Levine is a national significance who gives the working class culture a voice through his poetry.
This reading is sponsored by Gwen Frostic Reading Series and co-sponsored by “New Issues Poetry & Prose”, College of Arts and Sciences, the Center for the Humanities and the Department of English.
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