Carl Phillips Books

An invaluable companion for any writer seeking to make the writing life a more complex and cooperative venture

The collection highlights the evolution of Carl Phillips's poetry over two decades, showcasing his unique voice and distinct style. It features a selection of his most significant works, reflecting on themes of identity, desire, and the complexities of human experience. Phillips's ability to blend personal introspection with broader cultural commentary makes this anthology a vital addition to contemporary poetry.

Exploring the complexities of desire and intimacy, this collection intertwines parable and poetry to examine love's myriad forms. Through vivid imagery and unique characters, such as two boys on a riverbank and a horse named Nightmare, the work delves into the tension between punishment and promise. It challenges the limitations of language and perception, presenting a rich tapestry of emotional landscapes. With themes of transformation and the nature of belief, the poems reveal the fluidity of identity and the boundless possibilities of connection.

The collection features striking new poems that showcase the author's exceptional lyrical talent, praised for its depth and emotional resonance. The work delves into themes of human experience, capturing nuanced moments with vivid imagery and thoughtful reflection. Readers can expect a blend of innovative language and profound insights that challenge conventional perspectives, making it a compelling addition to contemporary poetry.

The book explores moral crises through Carl Phillips' distinctive syntax and vivid imagery. His writing is characterized by a speculative and dynamic style, inviting readers to engage with complex themes and emotional depth. The narrative promises an immediate connection to the challenges faced, showcasing Phillips' celebrated literary craftsmanship.

This new work showcases the mastery of a lyric poet, blending grace and resonance in its verses. The collection highlights the poet's refined artistry and emotional depth, inviting readers to explore themes of beauty, introspection, and the human experience through eloquent language and vivid imagery.

The award-winning poet Carl Phillips's invaluable essays on poetry, the tenth volume in the celebrated Art of series of books on the craft of writing In seven insightful essays, Carl Phillips meditates on the craft of poetry, its capacity for making a space for possibility and inquiry. What does it mean to give shapelessness a form? How can a poem explore both the natural world and the inner world? Phillips demonstrates the restless qualities of the imagination by reading and examining poems by Ashbery, Bogan, Frost, Niedecker, Shakespeare, and others, and by considering other art forms, such as photography and the blues. The Art of Daring is a lyrical, persuasive argument for the many ways that writing and living are acts of risk. "I think it's largely the conundrum of being human that makes us keep making," Phillips writes. "I think it has something to do with revision—how, not only is the world in constant revision, but each of us is, as well."

The narrative explores the powerful and transformative effects of wind, personifying it as a face flushed from its journey. This vivid imagery sets the stage for a deeper examination of nature's influence on human emotions and experiences. Through lyrical prose, the author reflects on themes of change, resilience, and the interconnectedness of humanity and the environment, inviting readers to contemplate their own responses to the forces of nature.

WINNER OF THE 2023 PULITZER PRIZE IN POETRY A new collection of poems from one of America’s most essential, celebrated, and enduring poets, Carl Phillips's Then the War I’m a song, changing. I’m a light rain falling through a vast darkness toward a different darkness. Carl Phillips has aptly described his work as an “ongoing quest”; Then the War is the next step in that meaningful process of self-discovery for both the poet and his reader. The new poems, written in a time of rising racial conflict in the United States, with its attendant violence and uncertainty, find Phillips entering deeper into the landscape he has made his own: a forest of intimacy, queerness, and moral inquiry, where the farther we go, the more difficult it is to remember why or where we started. Then the War includes a generous selection of Phillips’s work from the previous thirteen years, as well as his recent lyric prose memoir, “Among the Trees,” and his chapbook, Star Map with Action Figures. Ultimately, Phillips refuses pessimism, arguing for tenderness and human connection as profound forces for revolution and conjuring a spell against indifference and the easy escapes of nostalgia. Then the War is luminous testimony to the power of self-reckoning and to Carl Phillips as an ever-changing, necessary voice in contemporary poetry.

"Then the War sees Carl Phillips turn his sharp and subtle gaze inward, charting the changing landscapes of his life and work in a collection of new and selected poems"--