Robert S. Phillips (1938-2022) was an American poet, professor, and author or editor of more than 30 volumes of poetry, fiction, poetry criticism, and other works. In 1998 he was named a John and Rebecca Moores Scholar at University of Houston university.
A native of Delaware, he was educated in Delaware public schools and double-majored at Syracuse University, earning B.A. and M.A. degrees in both journalism and English literature. For a time, he remained at Syracuse, where he was assistant director of admissions and taught English classes.
He then moved on to New York City, where he had an award-winning career in advertising. He was a copywriter and vice president with Benton & Bowles, BBDO, and J. Walter Thompson, working on the accounts of Revlon, Clearasil, and Ford Motor Company. In the evenings he continued to write poetry and fiction. His first book, Inner Weather, was published in 1966. In the early 1970s he was creative director of Grey Advertising in Düsseldorf, Germany.
After returning to New York, Phillips taught creative writing part time at the New School and eventually turned to teaching full time. Best known as a creative writer, he published seven books of poetry, perhaps most notably The Pregnant Man (Doubleday), which was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, three books of short stories, and 20 volumes of essays, anthologies, and belles lettres. He was also known as an accomplished interviewer. Eight of his interviews with poets and writers were published in a volume, The Madness of Art (Syracuse University Press, 2003); conducted over a 20-year period, these included interviews with Philips Larkin, Karl Shapiro, William Styron, and Joyce Carol Oates.
Among his many prizes were an award in literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the George Arents Award, Syracuse University's highest honor for alumni. He was poetry editor of Texas Review and a council member of the Texas Institute of Letters. He was literary executor for the American poets Delmore Schwartz and Karl Shapiro. As a town resident, he founded and ran the Katonah (NY) Poetry Series for more than 20 years.
From 1991-2009 he was a member of the creative writing faculty at the University of Houston, where he was director of the writing program from 1991-1996 and received the Outstanding Teacher Award. His predecessor was the late Donald Barthelme.
He was a past chairman of the Poets' Prize in New York City and a member of the Players' Club.
Starting in 2001, The Texas Review, in coordination with Sam Houston State University, has offered an annual prize bearing Phillips' name for a distinguished poetry chapbook. Starting in 2019, the award includes a $500 advance and publication with Texas A&M University Press.
Portrait courtesy of University of Houston Digital Library
