Carl Phillips (born 23 July 1959) is an American writer and poet. He is a professor of English at Washington University in St. Louis. In 2023, he was awarded a

Pulitzer Prize for Poetry The Pulitzer Prize for Poetry is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes awarded annually for Letters, Drama, and Music. The award came five years after the first Pulitzers were awarded in other categories; Joseph Pulitzer's will had not ment ...

for his '' Then the War: And Selected Poems, 2007-2020.''

Early life

Phillips was born in Everett, Washington. He was born a child of a military family, moving year-by-year until finally settling in his high-school years on

Cape Cod Cape Cod is a peninsula extending into the Atlantic Ocean from the southeastern corner of Massachusetts, in the northeastern United States. Its historic, maritime character and ample beaches attract heavy tourism during the summer months. The ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

. A graduate of

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

, the

University of Massachusetts Amherst The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst) is a public land-grant research university in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Massachusetts system and was founded in 1863 as the ...

, and

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. BU was founded in 1839 by a group of Boston Methodism, Methodists with its original campus in Newbury (town), Vermont, Newbur ...

, Phillips taught high-school Latin for eight years.

Works

His first collection of poems, ''In the Blood'', won the 1992 Samuel French Morse Poetry Prize, and his second book, ''Cortège'', was nominated for a 1995

National Book Critics Circle Award The National Book Critics Circle Awards are a set of annual American literary awards by the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) to promote "the finest books and reviews published in English".Lambda Literary Award for Poetry. Phillips' work has been published in '' The Yale Review'', ''

The Atlantic Monthly ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher based in Washington, D.C. It features articles on politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 ...

'', ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...

'' and ''

The Paris Review ''The Paris Review'' is a quarterly English-language literary magazine established in Paris in 1953 by Harold L. Humes, Peter Matthiessen, and George Plimpton. In its first five years, ''The Paris Review'' published new works by Jack Kerouac, ...

''. He was named a Witter Bynner Fellowship in 1998 and in 2006, he was named the recipient of the Fellowship of the Academy of American Poets, given in memory of James Merrill. In 2002, Phillips received the

Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award The Kingsley and Kate Tufts Poetry Awards are a pair of American prizes based at Claremont Graduate University. They are given to poets for their collections of poetry written in the English language, by a citizen or legal resident alien of the U ...

, for ''The Tether.'' In 2004, he published ''All It Takes''. He won the

Thom Gunn Award The Thom Gunn Award for Gay Poetry is an annual literary award presented by Publishing Triangle to honour works of gay male poetry. First presented in 2001 as the Triangle Award for Gay Poetry, the award was renamed in memory of British poet Tho ...

in 2005 for ''The Rest of Love''. His poems, which include themes of spirituality, sexuality, mortality, and faith, are featured in ''American Alphabets: 25 Contemporary Poets'' (2006) and many other anthologies. In 2015, Phillips released his 13th collection of poems, ''Reconnaissance'', which was nominated for an

NAACP Image Award The NAACP Image Awards is an annual awards ceremony presented by the U.S.-based National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) to honor outstanding performances in film, television, theatre, music, and literature. The over 40 ...

for Best Poetry and appeared on the Top Books list from Canada's ''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Newspapers in Canada, Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in Western Canada, western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of more than 6 million in 2024, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on week ...

''. Phillips was also a featured poet in the "Picture and a Poem" series for ''T: The New York Times Style Magazine'' in December 2015. ''Reconnaissance'' won the

Lambda Literary Award Lambda Literary Awards, also known as the "Lammys", are awarded yearly by Lambda Literary Foundation, Lambda Literary to recognize the crucial role LGBTQ+ writers play in shaping the world. The Lammys celebrate the very best in LGBTQ+ literatur ...

and the

PEN Center USA PEN Center USA was a branch of PEN International, a literary and human rights organization. It was one of two PEN International Centers in the United States, the other being PEN America in New York City. On March 1, 2018, PEN Center USA unified ...

Award. Philips latest book to be published, ''Then the War: And Selected Poems'' (2022), won the Pulitzer Prize in 2023. ''Then the War'' is described by his publisher as "luminous testimony to the power of self-reckoning and to Carl Phillips as an ever-changing, necessary voice in contemporary poetry".

Recognition

Phillips is a four-time finalist for the

National Book Award The National Book Awards (NBA) are a set of annual U.S. literary awards. At the final National Book Awards Ceremony every November, the National Book Foundation presents the National Book Awards and two lifetime achievement awards to authors. ...

. He received the 2002 Kingsley Tufts Award and the 2021 Jackson Poetry Prize. He was also the named a winner of the 2023 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry. Phillips was a judge for the 2010

Griffin Poetry Prize The Griffin Poetry Prize is a Canadian poetry award. It was founded in 2000 by businessman and philanthropist Scott Griffin. Before 2022, two separate awards went to one Canadian and one international poet who writes in the English language. I ...

. In April 2010, he was named as the new judge of the Yale Series of Younger Poets, replacing

Louise Glück Louise Elisabeth Glück ( ; April 22, 1943 – October 13, 2023) was an American poet and essayist. She won the 2020 Nobel Prize in Literature, whose judges praised "her unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existe ...

. In 2011, he was appointed to the judging panel for The Kingsley and Kate Tufts Poetry Awards. His collection of poetry, ''Double Shadow'', was a finalist for the 2011

for poetry. ''Double Shadow'' won the 2011 ''Los Angeles Times'' Book Prize (Poetry category). Phillips was a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets from 2008 to 2012. and he was nominated for the 2014

for ''Silverchest''. The Board of Trustees of ''

The Kenyon Review ''The Kenyon Review'' is a literary magazine based in Gambier, Ohio, home of Kenyon College. ''The Review'' was founded in 1939 by John Crowe Ransom, critic and professor of English at Kenyon College, who served as its editor until 1959. ''T ...

'' honored Carl Phillips as the 2013 recipient of the Kenyon Review Award for Literary Achievement. Philips has also held fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

, and the Academy of American Poets, for which he served as chancellor from 2006 to 2012. Phillips was shortlisted for the 2024 T. S. Eliot Prize for Poetry, alongside Karen McCarthy Woolf,

Raymond Antrobus Raymond Antrobus is a British poet, educator and writer who has been performing poetry since 2007. In March 2019, he won the Ted Hughes Award for new work in poetry.Gboyega Odubanjo, Rachel Mann and others.

Selected bibliography

*
In the Blood
'. UPNE, 1992; selected and introduced by

Rachel Hadas Rachel Hadas (born November 8, 1948) is an American poet, teacher, essayist, and translator. Her most recent essay collection is ''Piece by Piece: Selected Prose'' (Paul Dry Books, 2021), and her most recent poetry collection is ''Ghost Guest'' (Ra ...

. * ''Cortège'', Saint Paul, Minn.: Graywolf Press, 1995, * ''From the Devotions'', Saint Paul, Minn.: Graywolf Press, 1998, * ''Pastoral'', Saint Paul, Minn.: Graywolf Press, 2000, * ''The Tether'', New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2001, * ''Rock Harbor'', New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2002, * ''The Rest of Love'', New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2004, * ''Coin of the Realm: Essays on the Art and Life of Poetry'', Saint Paul, Minn.: Graywolf Press, 2004, * * * ''Speak Low'', New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2009, * ''Double Shadow'', New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2011, * ''Silverchest'', New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2013, * ''The Art of Daring: Risk, Restlessness, Imagination.'' Minneapolis: Graywolf Press, 2014, (print), (eBook) * ''Reconnaissance: Poems'', New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2015, * ''Wild Is the Wind'', New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2018, * ''Pale Colors in a Tall Field'', New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2020,

Critical studies, reviews and biography

References

External links

Poetry Is His Perfect ExpressionA Broadside by Carl Phillips (Green Linden Press 2019): "Like the Sweet Wet Earth Itself"
* ttp://www.poetry.la/page268.html Poetry.LA's video of Carl Phillips' reading at Boston Court Performing Arts Center, Pasadena, CA, 03/08/10br>2009 National Book Award Finalist in Poetry
on Words on a Wire

{{DEFAULTSORT:Phillips, Carl 1959 births American male poets Poets from Missouri Poets from Massachusetts University of Massachusetts Amherst alumni Harvard Advocate alumni Washington University in St. Louis faculty Iowa Writers' Workshop faculty American gay writers American LGBTQ poets Living people Place of birth missing (living people) Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry winners African-American poets 20th-century American poets 21st-century American poets 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American male writers Gay poets Pulitzer Prize for Poetry winners Writers from St. Louis Boston University alumni