Xandria Phillips is the author of Reasons For Smoking, (forthcoming @ The Seattle Review) a chapbook selected by Claudia Rankine. She hails from rural Ohio where she was raised on corn, and inherited her grandmother’s fear of open water. Xandria received her BA from Oberlin College, where she studied creative writing and Africana Studies. Currently, Xandria is Winter Tangerine's associate poetry editor and an MFA candidate at Virginia Tech. She has received fellowships from Cave Canem and Callaloo. Her poem "For A Burial Free Of Sharks" was selected by Lucas De Lima as the winner of the fifth annual Gigantic Sequins poetry contest. Xandria’s poetry is present or forthcoming in Callaloo, Beloit Poetry Journal, West Branch, Transition, Nepantla, Gigantic Sequins, Powder Keg and elsewhere. For more about Xandria and her writing, you can visit her website.