The middle of so-far, three completed parts, Desert Sequence is the pivotal section in Dennis Phillips’ ongoing Mappa Mundi. Riffing off the subjective nature of medieval world maps, Mappa Mundi adds to, distills, distorts and reexamines the poet’s past works and recurring themes; relying on, among other techniques, repeated motifs, narrative tension and lyrical condensations. “Because memory,” as Phillips writes, “literally, is all we have,” the poet keeps on with his most human task of charting the unchartable.
The middle of so-far, three completed parts, Desert Sequence is the pivotal section in Dennis Phillips’ ongoing Mappa Mundi. Riffing off the subjective nature of medieval world maps, Mappa Mundi adds to, distills, distorts and reexamines the poet’s past works and recurring themes; relying on, among other techniques, repeated motifs, narrative tension and lyrical condensations. “Because memory,” as Phillips writes, “literally, is all we have,” the poet keeps on with his most human task of charting the unchartable.
Dennis Phillips (born 1951) is a U.S. poet & novelist. He co-edited the poetry-section of the New Review of Literature, was a founding editor of Littoral Books, the first Book Review Editor of the magazine Sulfur and the L.A. Weekly's first poetry-editor, as well as a director of the Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center. Phillips attended the California Institute of the Arts, where he studied with Clayton Eshleman. He then attended graduate school at New York University. He is a professor in the Humanities and Science Department at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, the city where he lives with his wife, artist Courtney Gregg, and their daughter.
