Dorianne Laux: "Mine Own Phil Levine"

The VPR Poem of the Week is Dorianne Laux’s “Mine Own Phil Levine,” which appears in the special tenth anniversary issue (Volume XI, Number 1) of Valparaiso Poetry Review.

Dorianne Laux is the author of four collections of poetry. She is also the coauthor, with Kim Addonizio, of The Poet’s Companion. Among her awards are a Pushcart Prize, two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, and a Guggenheim fellowship. What We Carry (BOA Editions, 1994) was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Her fourth book of poems, Facts about the Moon (W.W. Norton, 2007), reviewed in “One Poet’s Notes,” was the recipient of the Oregon Book Award and was short-listed for the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize. Laux teaches at North Carolina State University and lives in Raleigh with her husband, the poet Joseph Millar.

Tuesday of each week “One Poet’s Notes” highlights an excellent work by a poet selected from the issues of Valparaiso Poetry Review, except when other posts with news or updates preempt the usual appearance of this item, with the recommendation that readers visit it. Please check the sidebar to view the list of poets and works that have been past “Poem of the Week” selections. Additionally, readers are reminded that VPR pages are best read with the browser font preference in which they were set, 12 pt. Times New Roman, in order to guarantee the stanza alignment and the breaks of longer lines are preserved.