Extra! Extra! Carl Phillips Wins Pulitzer

TFP revisits our April 2022 conversation with the incomparable Carl Phillips, who last week was awarded the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.

Photo by Rachel Eliza Griffiths 

Dear TFP Readers,

First things first. Like I told the now Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Carl Phillips earlier this week, “I hate to say I told you so. But I told you so. . . . I’m now batting a thousand for Pulitzer predictions. Congratulations (to both of us) and drinks are still on me.” You see, in our TFP conversation last April (see link here and below), I embarrassed Phillips by saying his new collection, Then the War: And Selected Poems, 2007-2020, was “a leading contender for next year’s Pulitzer Prize in Poetry.” In an email after the TFP conversation was published, he wrote saying, with typical grace and humility, “I think it turned out great (except I’m embarrassed about the Pulitzer reference).” My reply? Don’t worry, you’re “a shoo-in.” This week I sent a note congratulating him but also relishing the chance to say, “I told you so.” To which he promptly replied:

Hi Michael,

You were indeed correct! And I remain shocked! But I thank you for the…