Caryl Phillips, an internationally-known writer, will arrive at the University next week for a two-week stay as Kapnick Distinguished Writer-in-Residence.
The writer-in-residence is chosen through the Department of English and the Creative Writing Program.
Phillips specializes in the African diaspora in the Caribbean, England and the United States.
As the writer-in-residence, Phillips will lead a master class for graduate and undergraduate students and consult with some of the writers in a one-on-one format, which he said he hopes will be valuable to the students.
“If you’re writing or working for two or three years with the same writing teacher, sometimes it’s good to get another pair of eyes looking at your work,” Phillips said. “It’s a different conversation [with] somebody who has a different experience of what it means to be a writer.”
Additionally, Phillips will hold a reading April 14 and a lecture April 21. Both events are free, open to the public and scheduled to begin at 5 p.m. in the auditorium of the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library.
Phillips graduated with a Bachelor’s degree from Oxford University in 1979 and said he has been writing since he left college. He has written 15 books, such as “The Final Passage” and award-winning “A Distant Shore” and “Crossing the River” and several plays.
Phillips has previously been a writer-in-residence at universities around the world, including Barbados, Singapore and Ghana.
He is currently an English professor at Yale University, where he has taught “Literature of the Middle Passage,” “Advanced Fiction” and “Contemporary British Fiction.”
During his time at the University, Phillips said it will be a pleasure working with some great students and faculty, whom he admires as both writers and teachers.
“U.Va. has one of the most distinguished creative writing programs in America,” Phillips said. “I’m hoping to have a constructive time working with the students … and have an enlightening time.”
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