Charles Lamar Phillips's Estranged--a literary and historical novel about the city editor of a progressive daily in the urban Midwest of 1950 who is attacked by a red-baiting U.S. Senator seeking reelection--appeared in February 2021 from Regal House, won that year's New York City Big Book Award as a Political Thriller, and was listed as one of the year's top mysteries by The Strand magazine. His story collection, Dead South--six connected tales set in Alabama and Virginia, including the novella "Exposed to a Fall"--was published by Fomite in 2020. Other of his recent fiction and literary work appears in such journals as New England Review, Massachusetts Review, Cincinnati Review, Raritan, Fifth Wednesday, The Brooklyner, and The Chaffin Journal. His story “Show of Hands” was awarded the Chaffin Award for Fiction and his story collection “Long Odds” was a semifinalist for the St Lawrence Book Award.
Phillips is a graduate of the University of Iowa’s Writers Workshop. He has written or co-authored a couple dozen, trade nonfiction and historical works for a variety of houses, including Simon & Schuster, Macmillan, and Grove/Atlantic. He has been an editor at Congressional Quarterly and The Washington Star and editor of the American Council on Education’s Higher Education and National Affairs and the American Association for State and Local History’s History News. He has also edited the journals of the Iowa Historical Society and headed its press. For several years, he wrote a column for American History magazine. Phillips is now managing editor of the American Journal of Play, and he compiled and edited play philosopher Brian Sutton Smith's posthumous Play for Life: Play Theory and Play as Emotional Survival, published in 2017 by the Strong National Museum of Play.
Phillips is a graduate of the University of Iowa’s Writers Workshop. He has written or co-authored a couple dozen, trade nonfiction and historical works for a variety of houses, including Simon & Schuster, Macmillan, and Grove/Atlantic. He has been an editor at Congressional Quarterly and The Washington Star and editor of the American Council on Education’s Higher Education and National Affairs and the American Association for State and Local History’s History News. He has also edited the journals of the Iowa Historical Society and headed its press. For several years, he wrote a column for American History magazine. Phillips is now managing editor of the American Journal of Play, and he compiled and edited play philosopher Brian Sutton Smith's posthumous Play for Life: Play Theory and Play as Emotional Survival, published in 2017 by the Strong National Museum of Play.