Andrew Philip is a Scottish poet. He has received numerous awards and is a popular tutor for The Poetry School. Drawn together by the shared experience of losing an infant son, he has become a friend and inspiration to me.
The Internet gives us the illusion that the best a culture has to offer will invariably find its way to us. But when it comes to art, I find that so much still comes down to local knowledge. Americans and Brits alike have long maintained a fascination with the literary work of their overseas cousins, …
I spent the past several months editing a special feature on British Poetry for the US literary journal Silk Road Review. The project came about as a natural extension of my private efforts to help expose more interested Americans to the remarkable scope and diversity of poetry I have encountered since relocating to London eighteen …
Poetry is both visual and auditory, which is why it so easily blends with other media. Songs and illustrated stories issue forth from prehistory. The twentieth-century coinage “concrete poetry” refers to the arrangement of words in print for visual impact, an art as old as printing itself. And spoken word and rap music explore the …
Unexpected things happen when you release a book of poems into the world. The opening poem of the collection, “Father-Son Conversation” ends with the line: “I will go on speaking to you as long as I live.” Many people have written to me to say that they paused after reading this final line, sometimes for …
I recently had the great pleasure of interviewing Andrew Philip, author of The Ambulance Box, as part of his virtual book tour. We conducted the interview via Skype, and it was remarkable to be able to both hear and see Andrew from such a great distance. Unfortunately, a few of those digital packets did seem …
“Even the pick / of those we share our pulse with shares this jolt / beneath the ribs, this double click of love. / How could they cope with even just one heart?” -Andrew Philip, “Cardiac” I have Jilly Dybka to thank for sending Andrew Philip my way. Since I have written openly about the …
