New Works Reading: James Cagney, Xandria Phillips and Cedric Tillman

Come celebrate the recent publications of new work by three brilliant Cave Canem poets. Recipient of the 2019 Josephine Miles Award from PEN Oakland, James Cagney is the author of Black Steel Magnolias in The Hour of Chaos Theory (Nomadic Press, 2019), a debut collection of which poet Connie Post says, “There is much to behold in this masterful book….” Poet and visual artist Xandria Phillips‘ debut collection, HULL (Nightboat Books, 2019), is praised by poet Thylias Moss for being “brilliantly executed. Everything precise. Xandria Phillips is no ordinary architect.” Cedric Tillman is the author of two poetry collections, most recently, IN MY FEELINS (Word Poetry, 2020), praised by author Alan Michael Parker for holding “fabulous poems of candor and jump, muscle and song.” Free and open to the public. Refreshments served. Co-sponsored with The New School Creative Writing Program.

James Cagney is a poet from Oakland, California. He has appeared at venues throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond, including Vancouver, Chicago, and Mumbai.  James’ first book, Black Steel Magnolias in The Hour of Chaos Theory (Nomadic Press, 2019), is the winner of the 2019 Josephine Miles Award from PEN Oakland.  It is available now from NomadicPress.org  More of James’ writing can be found at TheDirtyRat.blog.

Xandria Phillips is a poet and visual artist from rural Ohio. Xandria has received fellowships from Oberlin College, Cave Canem, Callaloo, and the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing, where they are the First Wave Poetry Fellow. Their poetry has been featured in American Poetry Review, Black Warrior Review, Crazyhorse, Poets.Org, Virginia Quarterly Review, and elsewhere. Their first book, HULL was published by Nightboat Books in 2019.

Cedric Tillman holds a BA in English from UNC Charlotte and graduated from American University’s Creative Writing MFA program. He is a Cave Canem Graduate Fellow and a former Nation Magazine (now Boston Review) “Discovery” contest semifinalist. Cedric’s poems appear in several publications including Pleaides, Rove, The Manhattanville Review, Furious Flower: Seeding the Future of African American Poetry, Iodine Poetry Journal and Home Is Where: an anthology of African American Poets from the Carolinas. Between 2016 and 2018, his second collection, IN MY FEELINS (Word Poetry, 2020), received semifinalist recognition in contests sponsored by Saturnalia Books, Cleveland State University, and Fresno State University; and finalist recognition from Press 53, Pleiades and the University of Akron. In 2017, his poem “the flag” received Special Mention recognition for the Pushcart Foundation’s Pushcart Prize. His debut collection, entitled Lilies in the Valley, was published by Willow Books in 2013. Cedric hails from Lilesville and Charlotte, NC. He currently lives in northern Virginia.