Working Classics: Poems on Industrial Life is a literary anthology of American working-class poetry written during the second half of the 20th century.

The book identifies within post-World War II American literature an emerging trend: a new poetry about mills and mines and blue-collar neighborhoods.

The anthology offers nearly two hundred poems by seventy-five poets, most of whom are of the baby boomer generation.

The collection was conceived and compiled by Peter Oresick and further developed with co-editor Nicholas Coles, both of the University of Pittsburgh.

Maggie Anderson · Antler · Robert Bly · Jim Daniels · Patricia Dobler · Stephen Dunn · Tess Gallagher · John Giorno · Donald Hall · Edward Hirsch · Richard Hugo · David Ignatow · June Jordan · Lawrence Joseph · Philip Levine · Robert Mezey · Lisel Mueller · Joyce Carol Oates · Ed Ochester · Jay Parini · Kenneth Patchen · Vern Rutsala · Michael Ryan · James Scully · Gary Soto · Susan Stewart · Tom Wayman · James Wright · Robert Wrigley