Tucson's poet laureate believes in 'making more room in the world for poets'

“As I came around the bend,” he writes, “I saw a barbed-wire fence above me, loose and sagging into the void carved by the downcut of the arroyo.”

He also saw a weather-beaten sign reading “Peligro … Warning,” and knew he had reached the barren boundary of Fort Huachuca.

What happened next is not altogether clear — “I make my living as a poet, not a reporter or politician,” the author explained, wryly — but Phillips’ eagerness to explore his role in the American Southwest helps explain why he is the new Poet Laureate of Tucson.

Mayor Regina Romero announced his appointment March 2, ending a six-month search by the city, the University of Arizona Poetry Center and the Arts Foundation for Tucson and Southern Arizona. Phillips succeeds TC Tolbert, who had served as laureate since 2017.

“I’m honored and humbled to be seen in this way,” Phillips said last week. “I’ve always understood the work of a poet isn’t just writing poetry, it’s making more room in the world for poets. It’s one of the things I love about it. I wouldn’t be here today if it weren’t for the writers who took a chance on me along the way. I will always be repaying that debt.”

The laureate position is in many ways honorary, but it comes with a $15,000 honorarium and a challenge to grow local interest in the arts. More specifically, the language arts. Phillips is fluent both in English and Spanish, and he is already planning a multilingual, multicultural literary event series called Somos Uno: Poetry and Storytelling.

“We’re hoping to have open mics, readings and workshops all over Tucson,” Phillips said. “We want to knock down whatever walls have been there, and see what we can all learn together.”

In her introduction last month, Romero said Phillips’ words truly reflect the Sonoran Desert, and it is hard to argue with that.

Born in Tombstone, raised in Sierra Vista and a Tucsonan since 2011, he has spent most of his life in Southern Arizona … and most of that with a notebook in his hands.

“I was always a kid who was into books and writing and daydreaming,” he remembers. “In the book there’s a poem I wrote in the third grade.”

Even so, the stars did not start to align over a writing career until his third year at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff.

Then, and there, Phillips attended his first poetry slam.

“I had started to write a little, hoping it would help me untangle my own life, and a friend invited me to one,” Phillips said. “It was one of the most powerful things I’d ever done — seeing people open up their hearts in such a personal way, in-person and onstage. I couldn’t get enough of it.”

By the time he received his degree, he was a poetry-slam regular, and ready to go all-in.

“In the mid-2000s, there was actually a poetry slam circuit, with slams going on all over the country,” Phillips said, “so when I graduated, I published a few chapbooks, ordered some T-shirts and stickers, and went out on the road. I’d drive from city to city, performing three or four times a week.”

Not only did the experience sharpen his lens as an observer — “I learned a lot, going to these different places and listening to folks from backgrounds so different than mine” — it honed his skill as a poet.

“I would write every day, and perform it that night,” Phillips said. “Since I was able to get immediate feedback on what worked and what didn’t, I think it sped up my writing process quite a bit.”

In the years since, he has taught, both here and in Mexico … earned an MFA in creative writing from the UA … developed a curriculum to help teens find self-knowledge, self-expression and connection through poetry … co-founded Tucson Youth Poetry Slam and Spoken Futures … and served a three-month term as the Writer in Residence at the Pima County Public Library.

Phillips’ most recent book, “Reckon,” released Feb. 10 by UA Press, is a one-of-a-kind collection of poems, essays, photos, newspaper clippings, playbills and billboards that together explore his complicated relationship with Tombstone — “The Town Too Tough to Die.”

“It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done,” Phillips said, “the book I never wanted to write but knew I needed to. My whole life, people have asked, ‘Born in Tombstone? What was that like?!’ I guess this is my answer. I tried to be introspective enough, and humble enough, to take a different look at where I come from and how much of it I carry.”

Interestingly, while the timing was purely coincidental, the book gives Phillips a perfect springboard into his upcoming time as poet laureate.

“If it can help readers investigate their own entanglements a little, find some peace in their own lives, we’ll know it was a success.”

Footnotes

• To learn more about Phillips and order his book, visit dirtyverbs.com. 
• Author, poet and essayist Julia Alvarez, one of the most important Hispanic-American voices in the last 50 years, will appear at the University of Arizona Poetry Center on Thursday evening, April 16. Alvarez is best-known for “In the Time of Butterflies,” which has sold more than 1 million copies since it was published in 1994. Her collection of poetry, “Visitations,” will be released this spring. To learn more, visit poetry.arizona.edu. 
• Tucson’s oldest bookstore, The Book Stop, has reopened. Closed briefly during a transition in ownership, the shop of all pre-owned books is now open Wednesdays through Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sundays from noon to 5. It has been in business since 1967. The Book Stop is located at 214 N. Fourth Ave.
• Distance runner and first-time author Sara Hall will reflect on her life and her love of running when she visits Stacks Book Club on April 24. She will be signing her newly published book, “For the Love of the Grind,” set for release April 21 by St. Martin’s Publishing. To learn more, visit stacksbookclub.com/events. Stacks is located in the Oro Valley Marketplace.