Rowan Ricardo Phillips at the Friends of the Key West Library Lecture Series January 13

On Monday, January 13th, the Friends of the Key West Library will proudly present Rowan Ricardo Phillips as the first speaker in its acclaimed and popular Monday evening lecture series. Mr. Phillips appearance is made possible by the generous support of the Key West Literary Seminar. He will discuss his latest book The Circuit: A Tennis Odyssey.

Mr. Phillips talk will take place at the Tropic Cinema on Eaton Street. Admission to the lectures is free. The talk begins promptly at 6:00 p.m.  Seating starts at 5:40 on a first come, first served basis.

Rowan Ricardo Phillips is a multi-award-winning poet, author, screenwriter, academic, translator, and journalist.

Phillips is the author of three books of poetry, a book of literary criticism, and a book-length translation of fiction. He has been awarded the Nicolás Guillén Outstanding Book Award, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the PEN/Joyce Osterweil Award for Poetry, a Whiting Award, and the GLCA New Writers Award. He has also been a finalist for the Griffin International Poetry Prize, the National Book Award, and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize.

His most recent book, The Circuit, was winner of the 2019 PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing. It chronicles the 2017 calendar year on the men’s professional tennis circuit, from winter’s Australian Open, where Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal renewed their rivalry in a match for the ages, to fall’s U.S. Open.

“As sports writing goes, The Circuit is unusual in the very best way. Rowan Ricardo Phillips writes with such fluidity, and packs the book with bursts of brilliance. This is a compulsively readable guide to one truly Homeric year of professional tennis,” said John Green, author of The Fault in Our Stars.

“Phillips reveals his love of tennis on every page. There is a generosity of spirit toward the reader . . . a joy to read: a poet’s love song to the game of tennis,” wrote Geoff Macdonald in the New York Times.

Phillips current project is a screenplay for a biopic on baseball icon Roberto Clemente, which will be directed by O. J.: Made in America creator Ezra Edelman.

He divides his time between Williamstown, MA, New York City, and Barcelona with his wife and two daughters.

For more information, please visit friendsofthekeywestlibrary.org.

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