Philip Matthews

Philip Matthews is a poet from eastern North Carolina whose practice roots in site-specific meditation and performance. He is the recipient of fellowships and residencies from the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, the Hemera Foundation, and the Wormfarm Institute, and his poems have appeared in Glass, High Chair, and Poetry Northwest, among other journals. He received his MFA Writing from Washington University in St. Louis. More at www.philipandpetal.com, Instagram and Twitter @philipandpetal.

Essay

On WITCH

By

In Witch, Philip Matthews’ debut collection, poems merge queer ecopoetics with religious disposition, speaking through a pantheon on mythic figures—from Jesus to Aphrodite—to commune or contend with reality. What emerges is a cumulative awareness of being a physical, energetic body in a fractured world, attempting to heal some part of it while exploring and embracing the gray areas of identity and ambiguity. 

Read More ›