Philip Stephens is the author of a collection of poems, The Determined Days (The Overlook Press, 2000), a finalist for the PEN Center USA West Award, and a chapbook, The Signalmen, recipient of the Hanks Chapbook Award from the St. Louis Poetry Center.  His poems are included in the anthologies American Poetry: The Next Generation (Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2000) and Phoenix Rising: The Next Generation of Expansive Poetry (Word Press, 2005), and they have appeared in The North American Review, The Oxford American, and The Southwest Review, and in other publications.  His prose has been published in The Oxford American, Bomb, and Best Music Writing 2004 (Da Capo Press, 2004).  He has worked as a railroad signalman for the Southern Pacific Railroad, a meter reader, a newspaper reporter, and an editor.  Philip Stephens lives in Kansas City, Missouri, with his wife and two sons, where he plays his great-grandfather’s fiddle.