His literary work is known for its relentless, caustic satire of contemporary American culture.
From 1985 to 1992 Phil Henderson attended Howard University in Washington D.C. Henderson dropped out a number of times to travel the world during these years, going first to Germany, Holland and Belgium, then France, Italy, Spain, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Greece, Turkey, Syria, and Romania.
Upon his return to the United States he edited a small literary magazine called Cafe Noir.
[citation needed] After graduating from Howard University in 1992, Henderson became a member of the Fiction Collective Two, with whom he published his first novel, Life of Death, under a nom-de-plume.
In 2006, Phil Henderson, as P. Lewis, won the American Book Award for his second published novel, Nate.