Her short stories, essays, reviews and articles have appeared in magazines and journals in North America and England and her poetry has been extensively anthologized.
[3] Her first novel, Harriet's Daughter (1988), is widely used in high-school curricula in Ontario,[4] Great Britain and was, for a decade, studied by all children in the Caribbean receiving a high school CXC diploma.
Set in Toronto, this novel explores the themes of friendship, self-image, ethics and migration, while telling a story that is riveting, funny and technically accomplished.
Philip's most renowned poetry book, She Tries Her Tongue, Her Silence Softly Breaks, was awarded the Casa de las Américas Prize for Literature while still in manuscript form.
As she explores themes of race, place, gender, colonialism and, always, language, Philip plays with words, bending and restating them in a way that is reminiscent of jazz.
Her articles and essays ... demonstrate a persistent critique and an impassioned concern for issues of social justice and equity in the arts, prompting Selwyn R. Cudjoe's assertion that Philip "serves as a lightning rod of black cultural defiance of the Canadian mainstream."
Specific controversial events that have been the focus of her essays include the Into the Heart of Africa exhibit at the Royal Ontario Museum, the Toronto production of Show Boat, and Caribana.