About Anthony:
Anthony Anaxagorou is a British-born Cypriot poet, fiction writer, essayist and publisher. His second collection, 'After the Formalities' published with Penned in the Margins, is a Poetry Book Society Recommendation and was shortlisted for the 2019 T.S. Eliot Prize along with the 2021 Ledbury Munthe Poetry Prize for Second Collections. It was also a Telegraph and Guardian poetry book of the year. His third collection, 'Heritage Aesthetics' published with Granta Poetry in 2022, was awarded the 2023 RSL Ondaatje Prize and shortlisted for the Anglo-Hellenic League’s Runciman Award. It was listed as one of New Statesman’s top books of 2022. In 2020 he published 'How To Write It' with Merky Books; a practical guide fused with tips and memoir looking at the politics of writing as well as the craft of poetry and fiction along with the wider publishing industry. Anthony is the artistic director of Out-Spoken, a monthly poetry and music night held at London’s Southbank Centre, and publisher of Out-Spoken Press. He is the editor-in-chief of Propel Magazine, an online literary journal featuring the work of poets yet to publish a first collection. In 2019 he was made an honorary fellow at the University of Roehampton.
Summary:
In this episode, Anthony and I discuss the Cypriot diasporic experience, inheritance, colonialism, monarchy, inter-generational trauma, the power of radical language, the politics of identity, ambiguity and erasure of identity, psychopolitics, philosophy of care, the family as an agent of the state, masculinity and fatherhood, among many other subjects. We delve into Anthony's latest book of poetry, Heritage Aesthetics. Anaxagorou highlights the significance of poetic language in shaping one's identity, and the challenges of expressing the nuances of Cypriot culture through our existing lexicon. He emphasized the importance of particularising the diversity within Cypriot identity, rather than reducing it to a monolithic stereotype, and through Heritage Aesthetics, he unpacks the erasure of Cypriot identity in the UK. Heritage Aesthetics offers a deeply felt exploration and reckoning of the lived experiences of those who are othered in society and outlines the psychology of feelings experienced by those at the intersections of culture, history, and identity.
References:
'Heritage Aesthetics' by Anthony Anaxagorou
'After The Formalities' by Anthony Anaxagorou
'Returning to Reims' by Didier Eribon
'Who Killed My Father' by Edouard Louis
Our theme music is by Alix Julian Edwards
Photo credit: Gareth James
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Ep 11: Anthony Anaxagorou | on Heritage Aesthetics