Anthony Anaxagorou is a British-born Cypriot poet, writer, publisher and educator. His published work includes several volumes of poetry, non-fiction and a collection of short stories. His second poetry collection, ''After the Formalities'' (Penned in the Margins) was shortlisted for the
T.S. Eliot Prize
The T. S. Eliot Prize for Poetry is a prize that was, for many years, awarded by the Poetry Book Society (UK) to "the best collection of new verse in English first published in the UK or the Republic of Ireland" in any particular year. The Priz ...
2019. In 2020 he published ''How To...Write It'' with Merky Books (a
Penguin Books
Penguin Books is a British publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers The Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the following year.Stormzy).
Early life
Anthony Anaxagorou is of
Cypriot
Cypriot (in older sources often "Cypriote") refers to someone or something of, from, or related to the country of Cyprus.
* Cypriot people, or of Cypriot descent; this includes:
**Armenian Cypriots
**Greek Cypriots
**Maronite Cypriots
**Turkish C ...
origin. His mother is from Nicosia and his father from Famagusta. He grew up in North London and attended
Queen Elizabeth's School, Barnet
Queen Elizabeth's School, Barnet is a boys' grammar school in Barnet, northern Greater London, which was founded in 1573 by Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, and others, in the name of Queen Elizabeth I.
It is consistently ranked as one o ...
.
Career
In 2002, Anaxagorou won the inaugural Mayor of London's Respect Poetry Slam (now known as SLAMbassadors UK, the national youth slam championship). In 2003, he appeared alongside fellow poet
Kae Tempest
Kae Tempest (formerly Kate Tempest; born 22 December 1985) is an English spoken word performer, poet, recording artist, novelist and playwright.
At the age of 16, Tempest was accepted into the BRIT School for Performing Arts and Technology in ...
Richard Blackwood
Richard Clifford Blackwood (born 15 May 1972) is a British actor, presenter and rapper. Between 2015 and 2018, he played Vincent Hubbard in the BBC soap opera '' EastEnders''. In 2020, he began portraying the role of Felix Westwood in the Chan ...
, where he performed a number of poems themed around social issues relating to young people. After an extended break from poetry, Anaxagorou began self-publishing in 2008. In 2010 he toured the UK supporting
MOBO
The MOBO Awards (Music of Black Origin, also known as the MOBOs) are an annual British music award presentation honouring achievements in " music of black origin", including hip hop, grime, UK Drill, R&B, soul, reggae, jazz, gospel, and ...
DoubleThink
Doublethink is a process of indoctrination in which subjects are expected to simultaneously accept two conflicting beliefs as truth, often at odds with their own memory or sense of reality. Doublethink is related to, but differs from, hypocrisy. ...
tour.
In 2012 Anaxagorou founded Out-Spoken, a monthly poetry and live music night, where he remains Artistic Director. In 2019 Out-Spoken started a long-term residency at London's Southbank Centre. In 2015 he founded Out-Spoken Press, an independent publisher of poetry and critical writing, which has published titles from authors including
Raymond Antrobus
Raymond Antrobus is a British poet, educator and writer, who has been performing poetry since 2007. In March 2019 he won the Ted Hughes Award for new work in poetry.Sabrina Mahfouz
Sabrina Mahfouz is a British-Egyptian poet, playwright, performer and writer from South London, England. Her published work includes poetry, plays and contributions to several anthologies.
Education
Mahfouz earned a BA in English Literature a ...
, Fran Lock and
Richard Georges
Richard Georges (born 1982) is the first poet laureate of the British Virgin Islands. He is the current president of the H. Lavity Stoutt Community College and a founding editor of MOKO: Caribbean Arts & Letters. Born in Port of Spain, Trinidad, G ...
.
In 2015 he was awarded the 2015 Groucho Maverick Award for his poetry and fiction.
His second poetry collection, ''After the Formalities'' (Penned in the Margins, 2019) was shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize 2019. It was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation and was a Guardian poetry book of the year. In 2019 he was made an honorary lecturer of the
University of Roehampton
The University of Roehampton, London, formerly Roehampton Institute of Higher Education, is a public university in the United Kingdom, situated on three major sites in Roehampton, in the London Borough of Wandsworth. Roehampton was formerly an e ...
.
In 2020 he published ''How To... Write It'' with Merky Books; a practical guide combining writing advice, craft and memoir.
Literary works
* ''A Difficult Place To Be Human'' – 2012
* ''The Blink That Killed The Eye'' (
Jacaranda
''Jacaranda'' is a genus of 49 species of flowering plants in the family Bignoniaceae, native to tropical and subtropical regions of the Americas. The generic name is also used as the common name.
The species ''Jacaranda mimosifolia'' has achie ...
, 2014)
* ''It Will Come To You'' EP - 2013
* ''Heterogeneous: New and Selected Poems'' (Out-Spoken Press, 2016)
* ''After the Formalities'' (Penned in the Margins, 2019)
* ''How To... Write It'' (Merky Books, 2020)