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Rowan Ricardo Phillips

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Rowan Ricardo Phillips
Phillips in 2020
Phillips in 2020
Born1974 (age 50–51)
New York, New York, US
OccupationPoet
Writer
Alma mater
GenrePoetry · Sportswriting · Nonfiction · Essay · Literary Criticism · Translation · Screenwriting
EmployerStony Brook University
Website
rowanricardophillips.com

Rowan Ricardo Phillips (born 1974 in New York City) is an American poet, writer, editor, and translator. He is a Distinguished Professor of English at Stony Brook University,[1] the poetry editor of The New Republic,[2] and the editor of Princeton University Press' Princeton Series of Contemporary Poetry.[3] He is President of the Board of the New York Institute for the Humanities.[4]

He is the author of the poetry collections The Ground (2012),[5] Heaven (2015),[6] and Living Weapon (2020),[7] the non-fiction books When Blackness Rhymes with Blackness[8] and The Circuit: A Tennis Odyssey,[9] and a translation from the Catalan of Salvador Espriu's short-story collection Ariadne in the Grotesque Labyrinth.[10]

Life

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Phillips was born in New York City and grew up in the Bronx. His parents are from Antigua and Barbuda.[11] He graduated from Hunter College High School and Swarthmore College and has a doctorate in English Literature from Brown University.[12]

Phillips teaches Creative Writing at Princeton.[13] He is a Professor of English at Stony Brook University.[1] He has previously taught at Harvard, Columbia, Williams, NYU, and Baruch College.[14]

Phillips is President of the Board of the New York Institute for the Humanities.[15] He is also a member of the Board of Aspen Words.[16] He divides his time between New York and Barcelona with his wife and two daughters.[17] He is a supporter, and club member, of FC Barcelona.[18]

Writing

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Poetry

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Phillips's first three books of poems––The Ground,[5] Heaven,[6] and Living Weapon[7]––can be read as a poetry trilogy.[19] The poet Henri Cole stated: "Like all good poets, Rowan Ricardo Phillips writes from a zone of his own creation, mixing the traditions of his West Indian ancestry with American poetry. He is a hopeful poet, a rising star."[20] Poet and scholar Evie Shockley wrote of The Ground that Phillips's poems "carry the authoritative descriptions and rhythms of Walcott, the philosophical and symbolic flights of Stevens, the subtle humor and cosmopolitanism of Dove, but in a language whose musical blend of the contemporary and the timeless is all Phillips's own.[21] In a 2021 review of Living Weapon for The Guardian, David Wheatley writes that "Phillips's determination to push beyond irony into affirmation is an audacious gesture".[22]

Phillips is the author of a book of literary criticism on African-American poetry, When Blackness Rhymes with Blackness (2010),[8] and a translation from the Catalan of Salvador Espriu's story collection Ariadne in the Grotesque Labyrinth (2012).[10]

Phillips' fourth poetry collection, Silver, was published in 2024 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in the United States[23] and was longlisted for the National Book Award for Poetry.[24]

Sportswriting

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Phillips has contributed sportswriting on tennis,[25] soccer,[26] basketball,[27] and baseball.[28] in a number of magazines. About his book The Circuit: A Tennis Odyssey, the novelist John Green wrote, "Phillips writes with such fluidity, and packs the book with bursts of brilliance."[29] The book follows the 2017 men's ATP Tour, featuring players Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic, David Goffin, and Albert Ramos Viñolas.

Phillips wrote a screenplay for a biopic of baseball icon Roberto Clemente adapted from the David Maraniss biography Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball's Last Hero. As of 2018, the film was planned to be directed by Ezra Edelman.[30] Phillips is also a consultant for the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, where he is part of the curatorial team working on a new exhibit called "Souls of the Game", which focuses on the history of Black baseball.[31]

Phillips is currently writing a book about Black baseball entitled I Just Want Them to Remember Me: Black Baseball in America, which will be published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux.[17]

Awards

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Phillips has been the recipient of a Whiting Award,[32] a Guggenheim Fellowship,[33] the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award,[34] and the Nicolás Guillén Outstanding Book Prize.[35] He won the PEN/Joyce Osterweil Award for Poetry in 2013[36] and the PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sportswriting in 2019.[37]

Bibliography

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Poetry collections

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  • The Ground: Poems. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 2012. ISBN 9781466802537.
  • Heaven: Poems. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 2015. ISBN 9780374168520.
  • Living Weapon: Poems. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 2020. ISBN 9780374191993.
  • Silver. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 2024.

Poetry contributions

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Criticism

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Nonfiction

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Translation

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References

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  1. ^ a b "Rowan Ricardo Phillips | English Department". www.stonybrook.edu. Retrieved November 16, 2020.
  2. ^ "The New Republic". The New Republic. Retrieved August 15, 2023.
  3. ^ "Contemporary Poets". press.princeton.edu. Retrieved August 15, 2023.
  4. ^ "Board". NEW YORK INSTITUTE FOR THE HUMANITIES. Retrieved August 15, 2023.
  5. ^ a b McHenry, Eric (January 25, 2013). "Poetry Chronicle (Published 2013)". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved November 16, 2020.
  6. ^ a b "Heaven". National Book Foundation. Retrieved November 16, 2020.
  7. ^ a b "Poetry Book Review: Living Weapon by Rowan Ricardo Phillips. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $23 (96p) ISBN 978-0-374-19199-3". PublishersWeekly.com. Retrieved November 16, 2020.
  8. ^ a b "When Blackness Rhymes With Blackness | Dalkey Archive Press". Retrieved November 16, 2020.
  9. ^ Lawrence, Andrew (December 10, 2018). "A Book That Honors an Underrated Sport". The Atlantic. Retrieved November 16, 2020.
  10. ^ a b Dillman, Lisa (September 2, 2013). "Ariadne in the Grotesque Labyrinth by Salvador Espriu". Translation Review. 87 (1): 108–110. doi:10.1080/07374836.2013.835140. ISSN 0737-4836. S2CID 171023416.
  11. ^ "The Antiguans". Work in Progress. April 26, 2019. Retrieved December 30, 2020.
  12. ^ "Rowan Ricardo Phillips". Poetry Foundation. November 16, 2020. Retrieved November 16, 2020.
  13. ^ "Advanced Poetry". Lewis Center for the Arts. Retrieved November 16, 2020.
  14. ^ "Africana Studies". africana-studies.williams.edu. Retrieved November 16, 2020.
  15. ^ "Fellows O-Z". New York Institute for the Humanities. Retrieved December 31, 2021.
  16. ^ "Board of Trustees". Aspen Words. Retrieved December 31, 2021.
  17. ^ a b "Rowan Ricardo Phillips – Blue Flower Arts". Retrieved August 15, 2023.
  18. ^ McGovern, Jack; Stephanie Teng (November 4, 2020). "'The ball's not bouncing but the game's on': Professor Rowan Ricardo Phillips on sports, politics and writing". The Williams Record. Retrieved December 31, 2021.
  19. ^ Brewbaker, Will (April 16, 2020). ""Stronger Than Steel": On Rowan Ricardo Phillips's "Living Weapon"". Los Angeles Review of Books. Retrieved November 17, 2020.
  20. ^ "Rowan Ricardo Phillips - 92Y, New York". www.92y.org. Retrieved January 7, 2022.
  21. ^ Academy of American Poets. "About Rowan Ricardo Phillips | Academy of American Poets". poets.org. Retrieved November 17, 2020.
  22. ^ Wheatley, David (February 5, 2021). "The best recent poetry – review roundup". The Guardian. Retrieved February 8, 2021.
  23. ^ "Rowan Ricardo Phillips". The On Being Project. Retrieved August 15, 2023.
  24. ^ "The 2024 National Book Awards Longlist". The New Yorker. September 12, 2024. Retrieved September 13, 2024.
  25. ^ Phillips, Rowan Ricardo (October 30, 2017). "The End of the Tour: Tennis Stars in Twilight". The Paris Review. Retrieved November 17, 2020.
  26. ^ Phillips, Rowan Ricardo (February 26, 2019). "They Think They Know You, Lionel Messi". The Paris Review. Retrieved November 17, 2020.
  27. ^ Phillips, Rowan Ricardo (February 5, 2016). "Kings". The Paris Review. Retrieved November 17, 2020.
  28. ^ Phillips, Rowan Ricardo (October 28, 2020). "Looking Back on Baseball's Silent Season". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved November 17, 2020.
  29. ^ "Rowan Ricardo Phillips". Friends of the Key West Library. Retrieved November 17, 2020.
  30. ^ Kroll, Justin (February 5, 2018). "'O.J.: Made in America' Director Boards Roberto Clemente Biopic (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Retrieved November 17, 2020.
  31. ^ "The Souls of the Game Exhibit Will Celebrate Black Baseball and How It Shaped America | Baseball Hall of Fame". baseballhall.org. June 19, 2023. Retrieved August 15, 2023.
  32. ^ "Rowan Ricardo Phillips". www.whiting.org. Retrieved November 16, 2020.
  33. ^ "John Simon Guggenheim Foundation | Rowan Ricardo Phillips". Retrieved November 16, 2020.
  34. ^ "Heaven". Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards. Retrieved November 16, 2020.
  35. ^ "Nicholas Guillen Award". www.caribbeanphilosophicalassociation.org. Retrieved November 16, 2020.
  36. ^ Poetry Foundation (November 16, 2020). "PEN America Awards Announced, Rowan Ricardo Phillips Wins in Poetry by Harriet Staff". Poetry Foundation. Retrieved November 16, 2020.
  37. ^ "Rowan Ricardo Phillips Honored for Best Literary Sports Writing | Stony Brook Matters". news.stonybrook.edu. March 5, 2019. Retrieved April 14, 2025.
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