Introduction
Xan Forest Phillips is an American poet and visual artist from rural Ohio. Phillips is a trans man.
Education
In 2014, Phillips received a Bachelor of Arts from Oberlin College, where they majored in Creative Writing and minored in Africana Studies. While at Oberlin, they served as a board member for the Center for Women and Trans People and completed a two-year research fellowship in Black Poetics.
They received aMaster of Fine Arts in Poetry from Virginia Tech in 2016.
Writing
Phillips’ poetry has been featured in BOMB, Poets.org, Virginia Quarterly Review, The Offing, The Journal, Nashville Review, Ninth Letter, Scalawag, Best Experimental Writing, and We Want It All: An Anthology of Radical Trans Poetics.
Painting
Phillips' painting has appeared in The Kenyon Review, Poetry Project, and American Poets Magazine.
Awards and distinctions
Phillips has received fellowships from Oberlin College, Cave Canem (2016–2017), The Conversation Literary Festival (2018),Callaloo, the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing (2019–2020), Brown University (2020–2021), and University of Pittsburgh's Center for African American Poetry and Poetics (2021–2023).
In 2020, they received Lambda Literary's Judith A. Markowitz Award for Exceptional New LGBTQ Writers.
| Year | Work | Award / Honor | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | HULL | Whiting Award for Poetry | Winner | |
| 2020 | Lambda Literary Award for Trans Poetry | Winner | ||
| 2016 | Reasons for Smoking | The Seattle Review Chapbook Contest | Winner | |
| 2016 | "For a Burial Free of Sharks" | Gigantic Sequins Contest for Poetry | Winner |
Publications
- Reasons for Smoking (2018)
- Hull (2019)
Anthology contributions
- Bettering American Poetry Volume 2, edited by Amy King, Jayy Dodd, Camile Rankine, Muriel Leung, Sarah Clark, Michael Wasson, Joshua Jennifer Espinoza, and Héctor Ramírez (2017)
- The BreakBeat Poets, Vol. 2: Black Girl Magic, edited by Mahogany L. Browne, Jamila Woods, and Idrissa Simmonds (2018)
- Furious Flower: Seeding the Future of African American Poetry, edited by Joanne V. Gabbin and Lauren K. Alleyne (2019)