Phillip Sterling

medium: Author

During his tenure as Professor of English at Ferris (1987-2013), award-winning poet and writer

Phillip Sterling worked tirelessly to expand the local literary community through the

organization of readings, workshops, and classes, often in coordination with Artworks, Great

Lakes Books & Supply, and other off-campus venues. Since his retirement, he’s channeled his

literary and art advocacy through state and national organizations. His writing and teaching has

garnered a number of distinctions, including a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in

Poetry, two Senior Fulbright Lectureships (Belgium and Poland), a PEN Syndicated Fiction

Award, and artist residencies at Isle Royale National Park and Sleeping Bear Dunes National

Lakeshore. Sterling currently serves on the executive board of the Poetry Society of Michigan,

edits the quarterly PSM Newsletter, and is an associate poetry editor of Third Wednesday

Literary Magazine. He and his wife live on a small plot of land in Lowell Township, where they

tend a woodlot and numerous gardens and care for an extravagance of animals and insects (feral

and domestic).