Anthony Barnett (poet)


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

Literary works

Barnett's volumes of poetry and short prose include collected Poems &, collected Translations, Lithos, The Making of a Story, Like Those of an Eerie Ruin. Antonyms Anew: Barbs & Loves is a collection of critical essays. He was the publisher of the first edition of J. H. Prynne’s collected Poems, and edited Veronica Forrest-Thomson's Collected Poems and Translations and Collected Poems.. Barnett's work is represented in the anthologies A Various Art; Poets on Writing: Britain, 1970–1991; ; 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. 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. He co-edits and publishes the literary, music and arts journal Snow lit rev.

Music works

He has worked as a percussionist, notably with John Tchicai. Barnett has written extensively on African-American violinists, in particular Stuff Smith: Desert Sands, and Eddie South: Black Gypsy, and 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, 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.