Carl Phillips

In his latest book of poetry, Pale Colors in a Tall Field, Carl Phillips returns to some of his most enduring themes, love, vulnerability, doubt, regret and desire.

“I have a candidate for the author of the most interesting contemporary English sentences,” wrote Dan Chiasson in The New Yorker last spring. The candidate? “The American poet Carl Phillips.” On Thursday, Sept. 5, Phillips, professor of English and African-American Studies in Arts & Sciences, will launch the Writing Program’s fall Reading Series.

Acclaimed poet Carl Phillips will help relaunch WUSTL’s Modern Literature Reading Series when he does a reading of the late poet Robert Creeley’s work at 6 p.m. Monday, Nov. 12. The event, which is sponsored by University Libraries’ Department of Special Collections, will also feature two master of fine arts students reading the work of two 20th-century poets.

Carl Phillips, professor of English in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, has won the 2011 Los Angeles Times Book Prize in poetry for Double Shadow, his most recent book of poetry. Phillips was one of 12 winners recognized during a ceremony April 20 at the University of Southern California.

Carl Phillips, professor of English in Arts & Sciences and a 2011 finalist for the National Book Award in poetry, reads from his 2011 book Double Shadow during the National Book Awards’ Finalist Reading Nov. 15. Double Shadow — published this past March — is Phillips’ 11th collection of poetry and earned Phillips a fourth nomination for the National Book Award in poetry.

As the number 11 has become the rallying number for the St. Louis Cardinals and their fans this season, could 11 also factor in poet Carl Phillips winning the most coveted literary prize in 2011? Phillips, professor of English in Arts & Sciences, has been selected — for the fourth time — as a finalist for the National Book Award in poetry. While the Cardinals are pursuing their 11th World Series title, Phillips is nominated for his 11th collection of poetry, Double Shadow.

Poet Carl Phillips, professor of English and of African and African American Studies, both in Arts & Sciences, at Washington University in St. Louis, has been selected — for the third time — as a finalist for the 2009 National Book Award in poetry. Phillips was nominated for his 10th collection of poetry, “Speak Low,” published in April by Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Distinguished poet Carl Phillips, professor of English and of African and African American Studies, both in Arts & Sciences at Washington University, will deliver the first of three talks on poetry at 4 p.m. Tuesday, March 25, in Umrath Lounge on the Danforth Campus, as part of the Interdisciplinary Project in the Humanities (IPH) in Arts & Sciences and WUSTL’s Assembly Series. Based on the theme of “The Art of Restlessness: On Poetry and Making,” Phillips’ talks are free and open to the public. The March 25th program will focus on “Poetry and Resistance.”

PhillipsPoet Carl Phillips, professor of English and of African and Afro-American Studies, both in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, has been selected — for the second time in a relatively short literary career — as a finalist for the 2004 National Book Award in poetry. Phillips was nominated for his seventh collection of poetry, “The Rest of Love: Poems,” published in February by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. The National Book Awards are considered one of the most prestigious prizes in American literature.

Carl Frieden, Jeffrey I. Gordon, John F. McDonnell and Carl Phillips can now stand proudly beside Ben Franklin, George Washington, Albert Einstein and Winston Churchill. Those four from Washington University in St. Louis have joined those four from history as being elected into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.