Then the War
And Selected Poems 2007-2020
Published on 24. February 2022
Book
Paperback/Softback
224 pages
978-1-80017-229-6 (ISBN)
Description
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry 2023
Then the War and Selected Poems, 2007-2020 is two books in one: a representative selection from seven of Carl Phillips's innovative earlier collections and a complete new book of poems, providing a powerful introduction to European readers. A seemingly gentle but resolute attention to the things of this world evokes the joyful and painful elements in the contemporary human condition, characterised by loneliness and an unquenchable thirst for love. He is a poet who knows the rules and bends or breaks them, a master of syntax and prosody, avoiding convention and pursuing the lines of desire.
In a starred review of this book, Publishers Weekly said, 'These lyrically rich, insightful poems are full of palpable aching [...] and a human urge to understand. This remarkable compendium is a testament to the spirit of Phillips's work.'
Then the War and Selected Poems, 2007-2020 is two books in one: a representative selection from seven of Carl Phillips's innovative earlier collections and a complete new book of poems, providing a powerful introduction to European readers. A seemingly gentle but resolute attention to the things of this world evokes the joyful and painful elements in the contemporary human condition, characterised by loneliness and an unquenchable thirst for love. He is a poet who knows the rules and bends or breaks them, a master of syntax and prosody, avoiding convention and pursuing the lines of desire.
In a starred review of this book, Publishers Weekly said, 'These lyrically rich, insightful poems are full of palpable aching [...] and a human urge to understand. This remarkable compendium is a testament to the spirit of Phillips's work.'
Reviews / Votes
'Then the War, is a forest-like network of linguistic relationships... ideas are turned over at different angles and that way gather complexity and momentum. Phillips operates in an altogether superior league.'Carol Rumens, The Poetry Review 'The 208 pages form a wonderfully compendious introduction to this major US poet. For those who have admired his work in the three decades since his debut, they are glowing confirmation that, as he enters his 60s, Phillips is writing better than ever ... a single project of the utmost immediacy.'
Fiona Sampson, The Guardian 'Phillip's is a poet of enchantment and persuasion... [his] poems are contemplative, rich, and troubled...a rich exploration of reality and imagination, of making art out of memories and making memories out of art.'
Richie Hoffman, LA Review of Books '...a poet whose art is among the best representations we have of the modern mind in all its wonder and melancholy uncertainty.'
Jesse Nathan, McSweeneys 'A welcome collection of earlier and new work by an unusually far-reaching poetic explorer.'
Carol Rumens, The Guardian where 'For Nothing Tender About It' was Poem of the Week
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Carcanet Press Ltd
Dimensions
Height: 215 mm
Width: 134 mm
Thickness: 18 mm
Weight
284 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-80017-229-6 (9781800172296)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
02/2022
Carcanet Poetry
€14.39
Available for download
Person
Carl Phillips is the author of seventeen books of poetry, most recently Scattered Snows, to the North (Carcanet, 2024). Then the War: And Selected Poems 2007-2020 (Carcanet, 2022) won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize. Phillips has also written three prose books, most recently My Trade Is Mystery: Seven Meditations from a Life in Writing (Yale University Press, 2022). After more than thirty years of teaching at Washington University in St. Louis, he lives on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Author photo taken by Reston Allen.