{"id":145850,"date":"2020-06-29T14:30:33","date_gmt":"2020-06-29T18:30:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=145850"},"modified":"2020-06-29T17:07:13","modified_gmt":"2020-06-29T21:07:13","slug":"the-art-of-distance-no-15","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2020\/06\/29\/the-art-of-distance-no-15\/","title":{"rendered":"The Art of Distance No. 15"},"content":{"rendered":"

In March,<\/em>\u00a0The Paris Review\u00a0launched<\/em>\u00a0The Art of Distance, a newsletter highlighting unlocked archive pieces that resonate with the staff of<\/em>\u00a0the magazine<\/em>, quarantine-appropriate writing on the<\/em>\u00a0Daily, resources from our peer organizations,<\/em>\u00a0and more. Read Emily Nemens\u2019s introductory letter\u00a0here<\/a>, and find the latest unlocked archive pieces below.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/em>As we move from spring to summer, as the days shift from getting longer to getting shorter, as some states push to reopen while others are placing new restrictions, I find myself split as well: wild to get outside, and desperate to crawl into a hole with a very big book. So I\u2019m taking many walks outside with my family\u2019s new puppy, Cashew (yep, we got a pandemic pup), and my current pandemic reading plan involves books in series\u2014since reading all three volumes<\/a> of Octavia E. Butler\u2019s Xenogenesis trilogy, I\u2019ve moved on to alternating between Elena Ferrante<\/a>\u2019s Neapolitan novels and Rachel Cusk<\/a>\u2019s Outline trilogy (you\u2019ll find these last two authors\u2019 Art of Fiction interviews unlocked if you click their names). And so this installment of The Art of Distance, which offers another deep dive into the work of a single writer, features the poet Carl Phillips, whose work resonates for me in ways public and personal. I love the syntactical challenges his poems pose, of course, but his work in the <\/em>TPR archive also forms a bit of a series\u2014Phillips has conducted one Art of Poetry interview and been the subject of another; in the latter, he also talks a good deal about walking his dog, so we\u2019ve got that in common. These connections may seem tenuous, but in these weird times, I\u2019ll take what I can get. May you, too, find focus, clarity, and a sense of shared consciousness and conscience in Phillips\u2019s work.\u201d \u2014Craig Morgan Teicher, Digital Director<\/em><\/p>\n

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Carl Phillips. Photo: Reston Allen.<\/p><\/div>\n

Carl Phillips is one of America\u2019s most beloved contemporary poets, known for his command of English syntax, his blending of classical mythology and contemporary concerns, and his deep explorations of eros and its implications. As judge of the Yale Younger Poets Prize, he has also been an advocate for new writers, launching the careers of Eduardo C. Corral, Airea D. Matthews, Yanyi, and others. <\/p>\n

Phillips has been publishing poems in the Review<\/em> since the early nineties, is the subject of one Art of Poetry interview, and conducted another. Before you start reading, though, watch his most recent contribution, this short video<\/a> in the Poets on Couches series<\/a> TPR<\/em> launched shortly after lockdown began:<\/p>\n

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