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Xan Forest Phillips is an author, painter, and yoga instructor from rural Ohio. Phillips earned a BA in Creative Writing with a minor in Africana Studies from Oberlin College and an MFA in Creative Writing from Virginia Polytechnic Institute. He received a 200-hour yoga teacher training certification from SOUL Yoga in Cleveland. Xan is the author of the poetry collection, HULL (Nightboat Books, 2019) and the recipient of the Whiting Award. Phillips has received fellowships from Brown University, the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing, the Sewanee Writers Conference, and the Center for African American Poetry and Poetics at the University of Pittsburgh. Phillips is the recipient of a Lambda Literary Award, the 2023 Oscar Williams and Gene Derwood Award, and a 2022 Advancing Black Arts in Pittsburgh Grant. His poetry has been translated into Spanish, Czech, and Slovenian, and his artwork was featured in the 2021 solo exhibition “A Bouquet of Gestures” at The SilverRoom in Chicago. Xan Forest Phillips is the 2024 - 2026 Anisfield-Wolf Fellow in Writing, Teaching, Publishing at Cleveland State University. He teaches group yoga classes at Ascend Fitness in downtown Cleveland and hosts a free monthly class at Rhizome House for the queer and trans community in the greater Cleveland area. Xan’s practice is deeply rooted in fortifying communities, physically and mentally, through words and movement.
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