Recent Articles
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The New York Review of Books
2016
"Chinua Achebe: It is the storyteller who makes us see what we are"
The Massachusetts Review
Spring 2016, pp. 60-65
I’d like to say a few things about Chinua Achebe, which hopefully resonate somewhat with our title-“It is the Storyteller who makes us see what we are.” I’ve been thinking about this title and have come to the conclusion that in the case of Chinua Achebe he was also a Storyteller who made us see who we are, or at least he certainly did in my case.
2015
"Finding The Lost Child"
Work in Progress: The Latest From the Front Lines of Literature, Presented by Farrar, Straus, and Giroux
May 2015
Living inside a book for many years it is perhaps inevitable that one loses sight of what the book is actually about. That is, if one ever really knew in the first place. Writers move stealthily, and almost always by instinct. However on completing a manuscript one is forced to describe to agents, editors, friends, and family the subject-matter of these months and years of furtiveness. So, what is your book about? It’s at this point that the full extent of the myopia is laid bare. “I’m afraid I’m not sure” will not suffice as an answer. Neither will, “Can you give me a little more time to disengage myself and make sense of things?” In the end I usually find myself talking about what led me to the book, for this is a subject I can tip-toe around with some degree of confidence.
2014
"75 at 75: Caryl Phillips on Derek Walcott."
92nd Street Y: Poetry Center Online
April 2014
Caryl Phillips responds to a reading by Derek Walcott as part of the 92nd St Y's project, "Poetry Center Online: Celebrating 75 Years of the Unterberg Poetry Center".
2011
"High Strung by Stephen Tignor - review"
The Guardian
Friday September 9, 2011
Borg vs McEnroe: one of the greatest rivalries in tennis history. A review of Stephen Tignor's High Strung: Bjorn Borg, John McEnroe, and the Untold Story of Tennis's Fiercest Rivalry.
"Book Of A Lifetime: Native Son, By Richard Wright"
The Independent
Friday August 5, 2011
The American author Richard Wright is most famous for this one book. It was his first novel, and on its publication in 1940, it became one of the fastest-selling novels in American literary history: a remarkable feat for a 32-two-year old, largely self-educated, man from Mississippi. It would be fair to say that it changed his life forever. He went on to write many other books, both fiction and non-fiction, but at the time of his death, at the young age of 52 in 1960, many of the obituary notices made reference to Wright as the author of just this one book, 'Native Son'.
2010
"Once upon a life: Caryl Phillips"
The Observer
Sunday October 17, 2010
Newly graduated from university, Caryl Phillips headed to Edinburgh to find the peace to write, exploring its Georgian streets with wonder. Until his dole payments were stopped, and things began to look grim…
2009
"Wright & Wronged: The Story of African-American Golfer Bill Wright"
Golf Magazine
September 2009
Fifty years ago, Bill Wright was an ambitious young golfer with boundless potential, a historic win at a national championship, and one insurmountable handicap: the color of his skin.
2007
"Writer's Room"
The Guardian
Friday November 2, 2007
This is from a column for The Guardian in 2007, for which they photographed writers' rooms and asked the writer to say a few words.
"Where Time Stands Still"
The Guardian
Saturday September 22, 2007
Simon Schama's book Rough Crossings records the lives of those who suffered as slaves on Bunce Island. Caryl Phillips, who has adapted their stories for the stage, recalls his pilgrimage to 'this miserable place.'
"Blood at the Root"
The Guardian
Saturday August 18, 2007
So horrific are the images conjured up by 'Strange Fruit' that Billie Holiday always performed it with her eyes closed. Caryl Phillips, who used the title for his first play, traces the song's dark history.
"The Price of the Ticket"
The Guardian
Saturday July 14, 2007
In 1953, James Baldwin, a hard-up writer in Paris, published the extraordinary novel Go Tell it on the Mountain. Four years later he sailed home to the United States to immerse himself in the civil rights movement. Caryl Phillips explores the historic consequences of his return.
2006
"Finding Oneself at Home"
The Guardian
Saturday January 21, 2006
Both Angela Carter and Natsume Soseki found new insights into their respective homelands when living abroad. Caryl Phillips reflects on the role of the writer as 'outsider.'
2005
Northern Soul
Caryl Phillips returns to Leeds to see how the city of his youth has changed.
The Guardian
Saturday October 22, 2005
Growing Pains
A boy learns about family secrets and life in race-conscious Britain, in an autobiographical story by Caryl Phillips.
The Guardian
Saturday August 20, 2005
The Power of Love
Luther Vandross died earlier this month, aged only 54. Caryl Phillips pays tribute to one of the most popular and influential soul singers of the 20th century.
The Guardian
Saturday July 30, 2005
To Ricky With Love (Introduction to Vintage edition of To Sir With Love by E.R. Braithwaite)
E. R. Braithwaite's classic tale of a West Indian teacher in an East London school, To Sir With Love, still has much to tell us about race and class in Britain.
The Guardian
Saturday July 23, 2005
The Height of Obsession
Last year, Caryl Phillips found himself bragging to a bar full of students about how he had climbed Kilimanjaro. By the end of the evening, he had agreed to do it again, with novelist Russell Banks—but this time by a more difficult route. Here is the story of their ascent to the highest point in Africa.
The Guardian
Saturday May 21, 2005
Do You Come Here Often?
Caryl Phillips salutes Lucas Radebe, the South African who set the standard on and off the pitch for African footballers in England.
The Observer Sports Monthly
Sunday May 8, 2005
Lost Generation
At the end of the 1970s, black British theatre was booming. So why hasn't a play by a black writer appeared in the West End since then?
The Guardian
Saturday April 23, 2005
Obituary: Constance Webb
Writer wife of C. L. R. James.
The Guardian
Friday April 15, 2005
Foreword to Book of Voices (In support of Sierra Leone PEN)
Flame Books
January 2005
2004
Necessary Journeys
Twenty years ago, Caryl Phillips was an aspiring writer fleeing Britain's race and class stereotypes. Seeking a richer sense of identity he embarked on an odyssey across Europe and beyond.
The Guardian
Saturday December 11, 2004
Kingdom of the Blind
Britain became a multicultural society in the 1950s, but, with a couple of exceptions, white playwrights and novelists do not seem to have paid much attention. Caryl Phillips asks why are there so few black characters in British fiction.
The Guardian
Saturday July 17, 2004
Women Writing the West Indies 1804-1939: A Hot Place Belonging to Us (A review of a book of the same title by Evelyn O'Callaghan)
Times Literary Supplement (p.29)
May 21, 2004
West Indian Intellectuals in Britain (A review of a book of the same title edited by Bill Schwarz)
Times Literary Supplement (p.30)
May 14, 2004
The Silenced Minority
The Guardian
May 14, 2004
Something About Her (A review of Not Without Love by Constance Webb)
Times Literary Supplement, p.10
April 23, 2004
2003
A Beacon in Dark Times
A poet writing 150 years ago defined the Statue of Liberty as 'the mother of exiles.' As America prepares to celebrate Thanksgiving next week, Caryl Phillips reflects on the very different welcome its immigrant communities receive today.
The Guardian
Saturday November 22, 2003
American Tribalism
I arrived in Amherst, Massachusetts in the fall of 1990 with the understanding that I would be spending a year teaching in a liberal arts college. I had not thought about exactly who I would be teaching, beyond the fact that they would be Americans. When I walked into my classroom on that first morning I was greeted by a rainbow coalition of faces; black, white, brown, yellow. Even at an institution as famously conservative as Amherst College, diversity seemed to be a wonderfully natural part of the make-up of the campus culture.
The American Effect
Global Perspectives on the United States, 1990-2003
Whitney Museum of American Art
Distant Voices
Civil war devastated Sierra Leone in the 1990s, and today it is the poorest country in the world. Caryl Phillips travels to the capital, Freetown, and meets the writers struggling to make a living there, to record past events, and to understand how they might contribute to the future.
The Guardian
Saturday July 19, 2003
Out of Africa
Chinua Achebe, father of modern African literature, has long argued that Joseph Conrad was a racist. Caryl Phillips, an admirer of both writers, disagrees. He meets Achebe to defend the creator of Heart of Darkness but finds their discussion provokes an unexpected epiphany.
The Guardian
Saturday February 22, 2003
Confessions of a True Believer
Shusaku Endo was a Japanese Catholic whose fiction explored the conundrum of his faith. He was an unlikely inspiration for Caryl Phillips, who analyses the enduring appeal of a great novelist.
The Guardian
Saturday January 4, 2003
2002
People of the Year
Ignored, resented jeered and mocked—a youngest sister moves coolly to greatness.
The Guardian
Saturday December 21, 2002