Phillip B. Williams

Phillip B. Williams
Williams at the 2024 Texas Book Festival
Williams at the 2024 Texas Book Festival
Born1986 (age 38–39)
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
OccupationPoet, novelist
NationalityAmerican
EducationWashington University in St. Louis (MFA)
GenrePoetry, Fiction
Notable awardsKate Tufts Discovery Award, Whiting Award for Poetry

Phillip B. Williams (born 1986) is an American poet. Born in Chicago, he is the author of the chapbooks Bruised Gospels and Burn, as well as the full length poetry collections Thief in the Interior and MUTINY.

Career

He graduated with an MFA from Washington University where he was a Chancellor’s Graduate fellow.[1] For several years he was a faculty member at Bennington College.[2] Williams was a Poetry Fellow at the 2018 Conference on Poetry at The Frost Place.[3] His poetry has been featured in Callaloo, The Kenyon Review Online, The Southern Review, Painted Bride Quarterly, West Branch, and Blackbird. Williams is a Cave Canem Foundation graduate as well as co-editor in chief, with KMA Sullivan, of the online journal Vinyl.[4]

Williams' work has been praised for its "devout and excruciating attention to the line [whose] indispensable [sic] music fuses his implacable understanding of words with their own shadows."[5] His debut novel, Ours, debuts with Viking Books on February 20, 2024.[6]

Awards

Thief in the Interior was the winner of the 2017 Kate Tufts Discovery Award[7] and the 2017 Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry.[8] In 2017 Williams was awarded a Whiting Award for Poetry.[9][10]

MUTINY was the winner of the 2022 American Book Award,[11] finalist for both the 2022 PEN/Voelcker Award for Poetry[12] and Publishing Triangle’s 2022 Thom Gunn Award for Gay Poetry,[13] and longlisted for the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award.[14]

Bibliography

Poetry

Collections
  • Thief in the Interior (Alice James Books, 2016). ISBN 9781938584176, OCLC 903436605
  • Mutiny: Poems (Penguin, 2021). ISBN 9780143136934
Chapbooks
  • Bruised Gospels (Arts in Bloom Inc., 2011). ISBN 9780983761105, OCLC 808013493
  • Burn - a chapbook within Frequencies, Volume One: A Chapbook and Music Anthology (YesYes Books, 2013). ISBN 9781936919116
Contributions to anthologies
List of poems
Title Year First published Reprinted/collected
Final poem for my father misnamed in my mouth 2021 Williams, Phillip B. (January 4–11, 2021). "Final poem for my father misnamed in my mouth". The New Yorker. 96 (43): 64.

References

  1. ^ "Phillip B. Williams". PoetryFoundation.org. The Poetry Foundation. Retrieved October 23, 2020.
  2. ^ "Phillip B. Williams". Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation. October 19, 2017. Retrieved October 19, 2017.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  3. ^ "Poetry Reading: Phillip B. Williams & Connie Voisine | The Frost Place". May 30, 2018. Retrieved July 27, 2023.
  4. ^ "Phillip B. Williams". Bennington.edu. Bennington College. Retrieved October 19, 2020.
  5. ^ Griffiths, Rachel Eliza (November 3, 2015). "Poet's Sampler: Phillip B. Williams". The Boston Review (November 3, 2015).
  6. ^ "Ours by Phillip B. Williams: 9780593654828 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books". PenguinRandomhouse.com. Retrieved July 27, 2023.
  7. ^ "2017 Kingsley & Kate Tufts Poetry Award Winners Announced". Tufts Poetry Awards. Retrieved July 27, 2023.
  8. ^ "29th Annual Lambda Literary Award winners announced" Archived June 10, 2018, at the Wayback Machine. LGBT Weekly, June 13, 2017.
  9. ^ Ciulac, Andreea (March 23, 2017). "Chicago Tribune". No. March 23, 2017. Tronc. Retrieved April 24, 2017.
  10. ^ "Phillip B. Williams Whiting Award Profile". Whiting.org. Whiting Foundation. Retrieved January 24, 2018.
  11. ^ "Before Columbus Foundation – Nonprofit educational and service organization dedicated to the promotion and dissemination of contemporary American multicultural literature since 1976. Host of the annual American Book Awards". Retrieved July 27, 2023.
  12. ^ "Announcing the 2022 PEN America Literary Awards Finalists". PEN America. January 26, 2022. Retrieved July 27, 2023.
  13. ^ "The Thom Gunn Award for Gay Poetry". The Publishing Triangle. Retrieved July 27, 2023.
  14. ^ "Our Longlisters for the 2022 PEN America Literary Awards". penguinrandomhouse.com. Retrieved July 27, 2023.
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