Poet laureate Philip Levine dies at age 87

Philip Levine, a former national poet laureate who won the Pulitzer Prize for writing that celebrates the lives of the working class has died at his home in Fresno, California. Levine was 87.

His wife, Frances Levine, said that her husband died Saturday, less than a month after being diagnosed with cancer.

Levine is known for books such as “What Work Is” and “News of the World.”

He won the Pulitzer for poetry in 1995 for “The Simple Truth,” and he served as the country’s poet-in-chief from 2011 to 2012.

Born and raised in Detroit to Jewish immigrant parents, Levine settled in central California in 1958, where he taught at California State University, Fresno, and at universities across the country.

Much of Levine’s works were centered around the life of working class people in his native Detroit, highlighting the experiences of American Jewish immigrants in both fiction and non-fiction pieces.

His wife said that Levine was a passionate teacher, mentoring a long list of poets.