… There’s
a trembling inside the both of us,
there’s a trembling, inside us both
— Carl Phillips
Carl Phillips, professor of English in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, won the 2016 poetry award from PEN Center USA for “Reconnaissance,” his latest collection.
Published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, “Reconnaissance” is Phillips’ 13th book of poetry. It has been praised as a “characteristically bold and beautiful collection” (Booklist) that “confronts a world that’s constantly redefining itself, faster and faster, a world where the truth can’t be neatly pinned” (Library Journal).
Phillips received the honor during PEN Center USA’s 26th annual Literary Awards Festival Sept. 28 in California. PEN Center USA is a branch of PEN International, the world’s leading international literary and human rights organization, with more than 800 writers as members.