Carcanet Press - Scattered Snows, to the North

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Author
Awards
Reviews

Shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize 2024

Carl Phillips's Scattered Snows, to the North is a collection about distortion and revelation, about knowing and the unreliability of a knowledge that's rooted in (always unstable) human memory. If the poet's recent books have been engaged with the theme of power, this one focuses on vulnerability: the value of embracing it and thus of releasing ourselves from the compulsion to understand our past. If we remember a thing, did it really happen? If we believe it didn't, does that make our belief true? In Scattered Snows, to the North, Phillips looks through the window of the past in order to understand the essential sameness of the human condition – 'tears were tears', mistakes were made and regretted or not regretted, and it mattered until it didn't, the way people live until they don't. And there was also joy. And beauty. 'Yet the world's still so beautiful... Sometimes it is...' It was enough. And it still can be.

Then the War: And Selected Poems 2007-2020, Phillips's first UK publication, won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. His most recent prose book is My Trade Is Mystery: Seven Meditations from a Life in Writing (Yale University Press, 2022). Phillips lives on Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

Carl Phillips is the author of 16 books of poetry, most recently Then the War: And Selected Poems 2007-2020 (Carcanet, 2022), which won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize. Phillips has also written three prose books, most recently My Trade Is Mystery: Seven Meditations from a Life in Writing (Yale University Press, 2022). ... read more

Awards won by Carl Phillips Short-listed, 2024 The T.S. Eliot Prize (Scattered Snows, to the North) Winner, 2023 The Pulitzer Prize for Poetry
(Then the War)

'Phillips is a classicist-poet in the vein of Hopkins, whose instruction by Hill offered a language of devotion that he could apply toward desire, love, and contemplation. His myriad devotionsâto nature, to sex, and to truthâare no less prayerful than those of religious believers. The result is a poet whose work carries sublimity and timelessness, and whose syntax carries an ancient strangeness and heft'

Nick Ripatrazone, Poetry Foundation

'This is the best that poetry offers - earthly but not earthbound, self-aware yet never self-indulgent, philosophical but with a firm awareness of emotional puzzlement. Phillips has an unparalleled gift for teasing out the peculiarity of grammar and syntax; his breath-long, branching lines move in an unpredictable pattern that keeps our hearts stopping and racing. Open-minded, erudite and deeply moving, this book of love and memory will withstand years of rereading.'

Kit Fan, The Guardian
'Perhaps no poet has sought so hard and so long, in such a variety of grammatical forms, for ways to depict such familiar situations - a hookup, a breakup, a wish to turn back time.'

Stephanie Burt, The New York Times

'In Carl Phillips's ravishing new collection, the elegiacal vision, still haunted by an erotics of loss has become enraptured with belatedness... in sinuous complexes of metaphor that revive experiences through the glamour, renegade, melancholy, of their ruins.'

David Woo, LitHub

Praise for Carl Phillips

'Then the War, is a forest-like network of linguistic relationships... ideas are turned over at different angles and that way gather complexity and momentum. Phillips operates in an altogether superior league.'

Carol Rumens, The Poetry Review

'A welcome collection of earlier and new work by an unusually far-reaching poetic explorer.'

Carol Rumens, The Guardian where 'For Nothing Tender About It' was Poem of the Week

'...a poet whose art is among the best representations we have of the modern mind in all its wonder and melancholy uncertainty.'

Jesse Nathan, McSweeneys

'Phillip's is a poet of enchantment and persuasion... [his] poems are contemplative, rich, and troubled...a rich exploration of reality and imagination, of making art out of memories and making memories out of art.'

Richie Hoffman, LA Review of Books

'The 208 pages form a wonderfully compendious introduction to this major US poet. For those who have admired his work in the three decades since his debut, they are glowing confirmation that, as he enters his 60s, Phillips is writing better than ever ... a single project of the utmost immediacy.'

Fiona Sampson, The Guardian

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Scattered Snows, to the North Carl Phillips 10% off eBook (EPUB) Categories: 21st Century, American, BAME Imprint: Carcanet Poetry Publisher: Carcanet Press Available as: Paperback (72 pages) (Pub. Aug 2024) 9781800174337 Out of Stock eBook (EPUB) Needs ADE! (Pub. Aug 2024) 9781800174344 £9.59 £8.63 To use the EPUB version, you will need to have Adobe Digital Editions (ADE) installed on your device. You can find out more at https://www.adobe.com/uk/solutions/ebook/digital-editions.html. Please do not purchase this version if you do not have and are not prepared to install, Adobe Digital Editions. Description Author Awards Reviews Shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize 2024 Carl Phillips's Scattered Snows, to the North is a collection about distortion and revelation, about knowing and the unreliability of a knowledge that's rooted in (always unstable) human memory. If the poet's recent books have been engaged with the theme of power, this one focuses on vulnerability: the value of embracing it and thus of releasing ourselves from the compulsion to understand our past. If we remember a thing, did it really happen? If we believe it didn't, does that make our belief true? In Scattered Snows, to the North, Phillips looks through the window of the past in order to understand the essential sameness of the human condition – 'tears were tears', mistakes were made and regretted or not regretted, and it mattered until it didn't, the way people live until they don't. And there was also joy. And beauty. 'Yet the world's still so beautiful... Sometimes it is...' It was enough. And it still can be. Then the War: And Selected Poems 2007-2020, Phillips's first UK publication, won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. His most recent prose book is My Trade Is Mystery: Seven Meditations from a Life in Writing (Yale University Press, 2022). Phillips lives on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Carl Phillips is the author of 16 books of poetry, most recently Then the War: And Selected Poems 2007-2020 (Carcanet, 2022), which won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize. Phillips has also written three prose books, most recently My Trade Is Mystery: Seven Meditations from a Life in Writing (Yale University Press, 2022). ... read more Awards won by Carl Phillips Short-listed, 2024 The T.S. Eliot Prize (Scattered Snows, to the North) Winner, 2023 The Pulitzer Prize for Poetry (Then the War) 'Phillips is a classicist-poet in the vein of Hopkins, whose instruction by Hill offered a language of devotion that he could apply toward desire, love, and contemplation. His myriad devotionsâto nature, to sex, and to truthâare no less prayerful than those of religious believers. The result is a poet whose work carries sublimity and timelessness, and whose syntax carries an ancient strangeness and heft' Nick Ripatrazone, Poetry Foundation 'This is the best that poetry offers - earthly but not earthbound, self-aware yet never self-indulgent, philosophical but with a firm awareness of emotional puzzlement. Phillips has an unparalleled gift for teasing out the peculiarity of grammar and syntax; his breath-long, branching lines move in an unpredictable pattern that keeps our hearts stopping and racing. Open-minded, erudite and deeply moving, this book of love and memory will withstand years of rereading.' Kit Fan, The Guardian 'Perhaps no poet has sought so hard and so long, in such a variety of grammatical forms, for ways to depict such familiar situations - a hookup, a breakup, a wish to turn back time.' Stephanie Burt, The New York Times 'In Carl Phillips's ravishing new collection, the elegiacal vision, still haunted by an erotics of loss has become enraptured with belatedness... in sinuous complexes of metaphor that revive experiences through the glamour, renegade, melancholy, of their ruins.' David Woo, LitHub Praise for Carl Phillips 'Then the War, is a forest-like network of linguistic relationships... ideas are turned over at different angles and that way gather complexity and momentum. Phillips operates in an altogether superior league.' Carol Rumens, The Poetry Review 'A welcome collection of earlier and new work by an unusually far-reaching poetic explorer.' *Carol Rumens, The Guardian* where 'For Nothing Tender About It' was Poem of the Week** '...a poet whose art is among the best representations we have of the modern mind in all its wonder and melancholy uncertainty.' Jesse Nathan, McSweeneys 'Phillip's is a poet of enchantment and persuasion... [his] poems are contemplative, rich, and troubled...a rich exploration of reality and imagination, of making art out of memories and making memories out of art.' Richie Hoffman, LA Review of Books 'The 208 pages form a wonderfully compendious introduction to this major US poet. For those who have admired his work in the three decades since his debut, they are glowing confirmation that, as he enters his 60s, Phillips is writing better than ever ... a single project of the utmost immediacy.' Fiona Sampson, The Guardian	Share this... Quick Links Carcanet Poetry Carcanet Classics Carcanet Fiction Carcanet Film Lives and Letters PN Review Video Carcanet Celebrates 50 Years! The Carcanet Blog Billy 'Nibs' Buckshot: John Gallas read more Emotional Support Horse: Claudine Toutoungi read more PN Review 279: Elegies by Lorna Goodison read more Conjurors: Julian Orde read more Citizen Poet: Eavan Boland read more Library Lives: Stella Halkyard read more
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