Anthony Barnett (poet)

Anthony Barnett is an English poet, essayist and music historian.

Literary works[edit]

Barnett's volumes of poetry and short prose include collected Poems &,^[1] collected Translations,^[2] Translations Addenda,^[3] Lithos,^[4] The Making of a Story,^[5] Like Those of an Eerie Ruin,^[6] Book Paradise: Spillikins (with drawings by Lucy Rose Cunningham).^[7] Antonyms Anew: Barbs & Loves is a collection of critical essays.^[8] He was the publisher of the first edition of J. H. Prynne’s collected Poems (1982), and edited Veronica Forrest-Thomson's Collected Poems and Translations (1990) and Collected Poems (2008). Barnett's work is represented in the anthologies A Various Art; Poets on Writing: Britain, 1970–1991; Other: British and Irish Poetry since 1970; Cambridge University Press Contexts in Literature Contemporary Poetry: Poets and Poetry Since 1990. His translations include Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, Anne-Marie Albiach, Roger Giroux, Pär Lagerkvist, Tarjei Vesaas, Andrea Zanzotto. Separate books of translation include Osip Mandelstam, Whoever Has Found a Horseshoe, with drawings by Lucy Rose Cunningham (2023),^[9] and Elsa Morante, Alibi, with paintings and drawings by Monica Ferrando (2024).^[10] In 2002 he was visiting scholar at the Center for International Programs, Meiji University, Tokyo. The lecture he gave there is published as InExperience and UnCommon Sense in Translation.^[11] He co-edits and publishes the literary, music and arts journal Snow lit rev (from 2013).^[12] His one-act play The Literature Director, lampooning the British Council and the English Arts Council, written in 2012, was posted online in 2023 at Fortnightly Review.

Music works[edit]

He has worked as a percussionist, notably with John Tchicai.^[13] Barnett has written extensively on African-American violinists, in particular Stuff Smith: Desert Sands, Eddie South: Black Gypsy, Juice Wilson: Fallen from the Moon: Robert Edward Juice Wilson: His Life on Earth: A Dossier. He produces CDs on his AB Fable Violin Improvisation Studies label, and for other labels. He is the author of Listening for Henry Crowder: A Monograph on His Almost Lost Music (Allardyce Book, 2007), about the pianist consort of Nancy Cunard. UnNatural Music: John Lennon & Yoko Ono in Cambridge 1969 is his account of the circumstances surrounding their appearance at the Natural Music concert, which he produced.^[14]

References[edit]

Further reading[edit]

• Brinton, Ian (Autumn 2012). "'Gut Strong—Bone Strong', review of Poems & and Translations". Poetry Review. 102 (3).

• Riley, Peter (25 October 2012). "'The "Infinitely Expandable" Minimalism of Anthony Barnett', review of Poems & and Translations". The Fortnightly Review.

• Harris, Timothy (July–August 2013). "'Loosed and Lost in Tongues', review of Poems & and Translations". PN Review (212).

• Kalck, Xavier (2015). "'Who Am I to Say? How Little': Anthony Barnett's Citations followed on". In Lang, Abigail; Smith, D. N. (eds.). Modernist Legacies: Trends and Faultlines in British Poetry Today. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-1-137-48875-6.

• Herd, David (March–April 2016). "Declining National Culture: The Dislocated Poetics of A Various Art". PN Review (228).

• Clark, Caroline (November–December 2021). "Anthony Barnett at Eighty: There is a story to tell, a tell-tale". PN Review (262).

External links[edit]

• Allardyce, Barnett, Publishers / AB Fable: http://www.abar.net
• UnNatural Music: http://www.abar.net/lennonono.pdf
• Listening for Henry Crowder: http://www.abar.net/crowder.htm
• Fallen from the Moon: http://www.abar.net/moon.pdf
• The Literature Director: https://fortnightlyreview.co.uk/2023/03/barnett-lit-director/
• Table ronde "Anthony Barnett, poète-traducteur multilingue": https://quaderna.org/6/table-ronde-anthony-barnett-poete-traducteur-multilingue/