Introducing Chuck Levenstein, Poetry Editor

Abstract

The Senior Editorial Board is excited to introduce Charles (Chuck) Levenstein as the new Poetry Editor for Capitalism, Nature, Socialism. For decades Dr. Levenstein has served as one of the world’s leading scholars on worker health and safety issues. He is now a Professor Emeritus of Work and Environment at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell. He is the former Co-Director of the Organized Labor and Tobacco Control Consortium, funded by the American Legacy Foundation at Dana Farber Cancer Institute. He has chaired the advisory committee for the United Steel Workers’ Federally-funded health and safety projects, as well as the advisory board of The New England Consortium, a NIEHSfunded collaboration of health and safety advocacy groups, trade unions and academics. In his 2002 book (with Greg deLaurier and Mary Lee Dunn), The Cotton Dust Papers, Dr. Levenstein examines the 50-year struggle for recognition of byssinosis (“brown lung”) in the United States. His most recent book (with Madeleine Scammell) is entitled The Toxic Schoolhouse, and examines how chemical hazards are endangering students, teachers, and staff in the education systems of the United States and Canada. Dr. Levenstein has also served on the IOM/NAS Committee on Health and Safety Needs of Older Workers, and is Editor Emeritus of New Solutions, a quarterly peer-reviewed journal of occupational and environmental health policy. He is a recipient of the American Public Health Association’s award for lifetime contribution to occupational health. In addition to his scholarly and activist achievements, Dr. Levenstein is also accomplished as a poet. He is the author of Lost Baggage, a collection of poems published by Loom Press. He has published three other poetry collections – Poems of World War III, Animal Vegetable, and The Ponderous Galapagos Turtle. He was contributing editor of Poems Niederngasse, a Zurich-based electronic poetry magazine. His poems have been published widely in e-zines. His most recent work includes “Apologies,