The Art of Daring to be Flawless: Is it Carl Phillips or Philip Seymour Hoffman? The answer will surprise you!

Buy Carl Phillips's incredible books (including his newest book, Then the War: New and Selected Poems) at Loyalty Books, a terrific Black-owned bookstore in DC.

Carl Phillips Bio:
Born on July 23, 1959 in Everett, Washington, Carl Phillips is the author most recently of Then the War (Feb 1, 2022) and of Pale Colors in a Tall Field (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2020). He has been a finalist for the National Book Award three times (for Speak Low, The Rest of Love, and From the Devotions) and a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award (for Cortège). His awards include the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award (for The Tether), the Thom Gunn Award for Gay Male Poetry, the 2006 Academy of American Poets Fellowship, an Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Pushcart Prize, the Academy of American Poets Prize, induction into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the Library of Congress. Phillips served as a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets from 2006 to 2012. He is Professor of English at Washington University in St. Louis. Carl Phillips's poems have  been chosen eight times for the annual Best American Poetry series.

You can follow Carl on Instagram @ pinestereo (where he also sometimes does a very popular and fun cooking show!)

 Phillips is also the author of two book of prose on poetry:
 Coin of the Realm: Essays on the Art and Life of Poetry (Graywolf Press, 2004)
The Art of Daring: Risk, Restlessness, and Imagination (Graywolf, 2014)

Philip Seymour Hoffman was born on July 23, 1967 in Fairpoint, NY. He was nominated three times for Academy Awards as Best Supporting Actor: as a priest under suspicion of sexual predation in Doubt (2008); as a C.I.A. agent in Charlie Wilson's War (2007); and as a  cult leader in The Master (2012). He won the Best Actor Oscar for his portrayal of the titular character in Capote (2005).

See Carl talk about and read from his new book, Then the War, released with Carcanet Press in the UK and FSG in the US, on YouTube here.

See Carl Phillips read his poem "Dirt Being Dirt" here (~3 min).

Watch Sumita Chakraborty reads Phillips's poem "As From a Quiver of Arrows" here (~3 min).

Carl Phillips interviewed by Ron Charles @ The Washington Post (1 hour).

Watch this interview with PSH ("Philip Seymour Hoffman: A Life in Pictures" from the BAFTA Archives) here. (~30min)