Lucy Hayes Interviews Xandria Phillips at The Rumpus

In conversation with The Rumpus, Phillips talks about publishing their first book, grad school, and historicity. "Phillips is a scholar, an excavator, a poet concerned with the collective consciousness," writes Hayes, "and we all benefit from how they live this out as a literary citizen and on the page." More: 

I spoke with them for the first time this winter on the phone for this interview from half a country away. I was in my apartment in Brooklyn; they were in Chicago visiting loved ones. In both places, it was raining and serene. Considering the dichotomy between geographies while observing the water that drenches them both felt apt when talking about Phillips’s debut full-length collection, Hull, which situates itself in reference to the Middle Passage, and the hundreds of collective and intimate histories that stemmed from this violence across the African diaspora. Hull demands the reader to educate themselves and to think critically about how each of us got to the place we are in now, holding this book.

It was an honor to talk to Xandria Phillips about publishing, historicity, and their process for writing this unforgettable collection.

The Rumpus: How does it feel to have your first full-length book out in the world?

Xandria Phillips: It feels both underwhelming and overwhelming. People will tell you that everything changes when your first book comes out. Every poem, for the most part, in Hull is individually published, so I felt like people would already know the work. But really, no one except your friends or maybe another writer is going to be familiar. So that was a weird thing to move through, especially as someone who just likes to work. It felt like doing the same work, so it’s weird to get more recognition for it. That’s all to say, some moments it feels slow, like it’s out in the world but nothing changed. Other days it feels like there’s a microscope on me, whether or not that’s real. Mostly, I feel really excited to read from it for people. It reminds me of a more serious version of story time, and I used to love story time growing up, so it’s nice to just have the excuse to read these lyrics that I have been entrenched in and to share them with other people. To have these words as an object is beyond words. But it doesn’t feel how I thought it would feel. Like, it doesn’t feel like a Book ™. It just feels like this thing that some people read and that I read aloud from all of the time.

Continue reading at The Rumpus.