Literary Cocktail Hour

The Literary Cocktail Hour is a fun, informal monthly event featuring a pair (or more) of speakers in an entertaining, illuminating online event based on the notion of a cocktail hour.

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The Festival will host Hal Phillips on Thursday, June 11, 2026 online for a virtual cocktail hour at 5:00pm (EST). The event is FREE and open to the public. The Festival is very excited to host Hal Phillips.

in conversation with Tom Bedell for a fascinating conversation focused around Phillip’s latest book Sibling Rivalry . Soccer is the most global of pastimes, but no international rivalry carries more cultural and geo-political baggage than the United States vs. Mexico, especially today. With the 2026 World Cup set to be co-hosted by the two nations (along with Canada), it’s time to shine a spotlight on this storied continental grudge match.

In Sibling Rivalry, Hal

Phillips investigates the intense, complex associations between the two countries, both on and off the field. He examines the complicated border dynamics, the countries’ economic and cultural realities, and the evolution of what was once a one-sided rivalry into an intensely equal, ever-escalating athletic confrontation. Phillips also draws on the stories of Mexican-American stars who opted to play for the US and those who chose to play for Mexico. Their perspectives breathe life into the story and show the impact of this rivalry on a personal level.

More than a million people and 300,000 goods-bearing vehicles traverse the U.S.-Mexico border every day. The countries and their people are intricately intertwined, whether they want to be or not. That’s what makes this centuries-old family drama, played out in fascinating detail in Sibling Rivalry, so complicated and compelling.

Hal Phillips is an author, journalist, and media executive based in southern Maine. In January 2026, Bloomsbury will publish his second book-length soccer project, Sibling Rivalry: How Mexico and the U.S. Built the Most Contentious, Co-Dependent Feud in World Soccer. Dickinson-Moses Press published the first, Generation Zero: Founding Fathers, Hidden Histories and the Making of Soccer in America, in July 2022. Phillips blogs on all matters fútbol and the world at-large at www.halphillips.net. He can be reached at onintwo@maine.rr.com
An all-state striker at Wellesley (Mass.) High School, Phillips played four years of college soccer at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, where he double-majored in ancient Greek history and modern American literature. He also captained the varsity golf team at Wesleyan. He logged three years in the semi-pro, Greater Boston-based Luso-American Soccer Association, before heading north to play ten more seasons in the Maine Open League. Starting in 1997, he has owned and operated Mandarin Media, Inc., a Maine-based media consulting, content- and digital-marketing agency serving golf, hospitality and property clients across North America, Asia-Pacific and the UK.
Until 1997, Phillips had worked as a daily newspaper and magazine editor. The formation of Mandarin Media essentially launched his freelance journalism career. He has since contributed feature content and columns to ESPN.com, Sports Illustrated, Soccer Journal, Soccer365.com, GOLF Magazine, Travel & Leisure, Golf Digest China, LINKS Magazine, Golf Australia, The Portland Press Herald and Sun-Journal newspapers, McKellar, The Robb Report and dozens of additional titles worldwide, some of which still exist. He was also founder and host of the Unsightly American Soccer Podcast from 2009 to 2013, pioneering but effectively pre-dating the podcast movement.