Rowan Ricardo Phillips

Rowan Ricardo Phillips is the author of four books of poetry; When Blackness Rhymes with Blackness, The Ground, Heaven, and the forthcoming Living Weapon.  He is a multi-award-winning poet, author, screenwriter, academic, translator, and journalist.  His writing appears in The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Paris Review, and other national and international publications.

The author of three books of poetry, a book of literary criticism, a non-fiction book on tennis, and a book-length translation of fiction, Rowan Ricardo Phillips has been awarded the Nicolás Guillén Outstanding Book Award, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sportswriting, the PEN/Joyce Osterweil Award for Poetry, a Whiting Award, and the GLCA New Writers Award. He has also been a finalist for the Griffin International Poetry Prize, the National Book Award, and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize.

 

Currently, Rowan is writing the screenplay for Legendary’s biopic on baseball icon Roberto Clemente, which will be directed by "O. J.: Made in America" creator Ezra Edelman and produced by John Lesher, Fuego Films’ Ben Silverman and Jay Weisleder, with Giselle Fernandez and Sandra Condito as executive producers. His work has also been heard on the small screen: his poetry has been adapted for music and subsequently appeared on Spike Lee’s Netflix series "She’s Gotta Have It."

 

Rowan Ricardo Phillips is a graduate of Swarthmore College, has a doctorate in English Literature from Brown University, teaches English Literature and Creative Writing at Stony Brook University and Princeton University, and lives in New York City and Barcelona with his wife and two daughters.