Philip Levine, a former Detroit autoworker and product of Detroit Public Schools, has been named the U.S. Poet Laureate for 2011-12.

Philip Levine, a former Detroit autoworker and product of Detroit Public Schools, has been named the U.S. Poet Laureate for 2011-12.

 
Last fall Levine's poems "Of Love and Other Disasters," "Arrival and Departure," "The Death of Mayakovsky" and "Library Days" appeared in Detroit poet (and Wayne State professor) M.L. Liebler's anthology, Working Words: Punching the Clock and Kicking out the Jams (Coffee House Press).

"He is America's most-acclaimed working-class poet," Liebler said. "He will bring poetry to the people through his accessible and dimensional poems about the working class, Detroit and post-industrial America. As poet laureate, Phil will make a difference in how Americans see and understand poetry. I welcome this announcement with excitement and enthusiasm for my good friend."