Anthony Etherin
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Anthony Etherin (born 2 September 1981) is a British experimental formal poet and publisher for the imprint Penteract Press. He is known for his use of strict, often combinatorial, literary restrictions, most notably
palindrome A palindrome (Help:IPA/English, /ˈpæl.ɪn.droʊm/) is a word, palindromic number, number, phrase, or other sequence of symbols that reads the same backwards as forwards, such as ''madam'' or ''racecar'', the date "Twosday, 02/02/2020" and th ...
s,
anagram An anagram is a word or phrase formed by rearranging the letters of a different word or phrase, typically using all the original letters exactly once. For example, the word ''anagram'' itself can be rearranged into the phrase "nag a ram"; which ...
s, and aelindromes, a restriction of his own invention. He also composes constraint-based music, and hosted
The Penteract Podcast
'. Etherin seeks to promote literary constraints as poetic tools rather than just word games, and sees constraints as part of the same tradition as fixed poetry forms, saying that palindromes “possess innate poetic value, in the elegance of their abstract symmetry.”


Work


Twitter

Etherin is known for his prolific use of
Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...
, where he posts poems daily. These poems include award-winning palindromes, anagrammed lines poems, and minimalist
sonnet A sonnet is a fixed poetic form with a structure traditionally consisting of fourteen lines adhering to a set Rhyme scheme, rhyming scheme. The term derives from the Italian word ''sonetto'' (, from the Latin word ''sonus'', ). Originating in ...
s composed in iambic monometer and dimeter. He has occasionally tweets
triolet A triolet (, ) is almost always a stanza poem of eight lines, though stanzas with as few as seven lines and as many as nine or more have appeared in its history. Its rhyme scheme is ABaAabAB (capital letters represent lines repeated verbatim) and ...
s, a form for which has expressed a particular fondness. In August 2018, a palindrome of Etherin's went viral, following a retweet from children's author
JK Rowling Joanne Rowling ( ; born 31 July 1965), known by her pen name , is a British author and philanthropist. She is the author of ''Harry Potter'', a seven-volume fantasy novel series published from 1997 to 2007. The series has List of best-sell ...
. The tweet was a rare topical palindrome by Etherin, addressing rumours that actor
Idris Elba Idrissa Akuna Elba Order of the British Empire, OBE ( ; born 6 September 1972) is an English actor and musician. He has received a Golden Globe Award as well as nominations for three BAFTA Awards and six Primetime Emmy Awards, Emmy Awards. He w ...
would be the next
James Bond The ''James Bond'' franchise focuses on James Bond (literary character), the titular character, a fictional Secret Intelligence Service, British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels ...
(‘Able Sir, did nobody fit recognise it ties in? Go, certify—do Bond, Idris Elba!’). More typically, Etherin's palindromes avoid proper names and cultural references (‘I sat, solemn. I saw time open one poem. It was in me, lost as I.’).


Penteract Press

Etherin founded Penteract Press in July 2016, as a venue for experimental formal poetry, particularly constraint-based and visual poetry. Initially operating as a leaflet micro-press, by 2018 Penteract Press was producing full-length poetry books and chapbooks. Penteract Press has published work by such international avant-garde poets as
Christian Bök Christian Bök, FRSC (; born August 10, 1966, in Toronto, Canada) is a Canadian poet known for his experimental works. He is the author of ''Eunoia'', which won the Canadian Griffin Poetry Prize. Life and work He was born "Christian Book", but ...
, Gary Barwin,
Nick Montfort Nick Montfort is an American computer scientist and poet who is a professor of digital media at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he directs a lab called The Trope Tank. He also holds a part-time position at the University of Bergen whe ...
, Steven J Fowler, Gregory Betts, derek beaulieu, rob mclennan, and
Samuel Andreyev Samuel Andreyev (born Samuel Curnoe Andreeff; 15 April 1981) is a Canadian-French composer, singer-songwriter, poet and educator. As of 2021, he had completed about 30 works, nearly all of which have been recorded commercially. His YouTube channe ...
. In April 2019, Penteract Press was invited by Gregory Betts to host a roundtable discussion on the subject of micro-press publishing at the conference TEXT/SOUND/PERFORMANCE: Making in Canadian Space held at University College Dublin. In 2020, Etherin started hosting ''The Penteract Poetry Podcast'', a series of interviews with poets and poetry publishers.


Stray Arts

In October 2019, Etherin published his book ''Stray Arts (and Other Inventions)'' through Penteract Press. Ten years in the making, the book is a collection of Etherin's most adventurous and extreme experiments in constraint-based formalism, presenting anagrams and palindromes in combination with traditional forms such as sonnets,
sestina A sestina (, from ''sesto'', sixth; Old Occitan: ''cledisat'' ; also known as ''sestine'', ''sextine'', ''sextain'') is a fixed verse, fixed verse form consisting of six stanzas of six lines each, normally followed by a three-line envoi. The wor ...
s, triolets, and
ottava rima Ottava rima is a rhyming stanza form of Italian origin. Originally used for long poems on heroic themes, it later came to be popular in the writing of mock-heroic works. Its earliest known use is in the writings of Giovanni Boccaccio. The ottav ...
. ''Stray Arts'' also features experiments in
visual poetry Visual poetry is a style of poetry that incorporates graphic and visual design elements to convey its meaning. This style combines visual art and written expression to create new ways of presenting and interpreting poetry. Visual poetry focuses on ...
and a number of the smaller poems featured on his Twitter account. The book received blurbs from poets
Christian Bök Christian Bök, FRSC (; born August 10, 1966, in Toronto, Canada) is a Canadian poet known for his experimental works. He is the author of ''Eunoia'', which won the Canadian Griffin Poetry Prize. Life and work He was born "Christian Book", but ...
and
Ian McMillan Ian McMillan may refer to: * Ian MacMillan (author) (1941–2008), Hawaiian scholar and novelist * Ian McMillan (curler) (born 1991), Canadian curler * Ian McMillan (footballer) (1931–2024), Scottish footballer *Ian McMillan (poet) Ian McMill ...
, as well as magician
Penn Jillette Penn Fraser Jillette (born March 5, 1955) is an American Magic (illusion), magician, actor, comedian, musician, inventor, television presenter, and author, best known for his work with fellow magician Teller (magician), Teller as half of the t ...
, who had previously referred to Etherin's poem-pair ''The White Whale'' as a ‘perfect work of art’.  (''The White Whale'' consists of two palindromes (one palindromic by pairs of letters) that are perfect anagrams of each other and which both discuss
Herman Melville Herman Melville (Name change, born Melvill; August 1, 1819 – September 28, 1891) was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet of the American Renaissance (literature), American Renaissance period. Among his best-known works ar ...
’s novel ''
Moby-Dick ''Moby-Dick; or, The Whale'' is an 1851 Epic (genre), epic novel by American writer Herman Melville. The book is centered on the sailor Ishmael (Moby-Dick), Ishmael's narrative of the maniacal quest of Captain Ahab, Ahab, captain of the whaler ...
'').
T. S. Eliot Prize The T. S. Eliot Prize for Poetry is a prize for poetry awarded by the T. S. Eliot Foundation. For many years it was awarded by the Eliots' Poetry Book Society (UK) for "the best collection of new verse in English first published in the UK or t ...
winner
George Szirtes George Szirtes (; born 29 November 1948) is a British poet and translator from the Hungarian language into English. Originally from Hungary, he has lived in the United Kingdom for most of his life after coming to the country as a refugee at the ...
said of ''Stray Arts poems: "They don't really belong in the realms of concrete poetry or of DADA. They are clearly moving towards coherence, as if each poem were the work of a dozen spiders constructing one complex web for the light to catch."


Slate Petals

In July 2021, Penteract Press published ''Slate Petals (and Other Wordscape''s), Etherin's follow-up to 2019's ''Stray Arts''. Applying the methods of its prequel to pastoral subject matter, ''Slate Petals'' explores the use of strict constraints to compose traditional lyrical poetry. ''Slate Petals'' received blurbs from
Anthony Horowitz Anthony John Horowitz (born 5 April 1955) is an English novelist and screenwriter specialising in mystery and suspense. His works for children and young adult readers include the '' Alex Rider'' series featuring a 14-year-old British boy who spi ...
,
George Szirtes George Szirtes (; born 29 November 1948) is a British poet and translator from the Hungarian language into English. Originally from Hungary, he has lived in the United Kingdom for most of his life after coming to the country as a refugee at the ...
, and
Christian Bök Christian Bök, FRSC (; born August 10, 1966, in Toronto, Canada) is a Canadian poet known for his experimental works. He is the author of ''Eunoia'', which won the Canadian Griffin Poetry Prize. Life and work He was born "Christian Book", but ...
and was launched online vi
The Penteract Podcast
owing to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Praising the book, magician
Penn Jillette Penn Fraser Jillette (born March 5, 1955) is an American Magic (illusion), magician, actor, comedian, musician, inventor, television presenter, and author, best known for his work with fellow magician Teller (magician), Teller as half of the t ...
read excerpts from ''Slate Petals'' on hi
podcast
while poet and broadcaster
Ian McMillan Ian McMillan may refer to: * Ian MacMillan (author) (1941–2008), Hawaiian scholar and novelist * Ian McMillan (curler) (born 1991), Canadian curler * Ian McMillan (footballer) (1931–2024), Scottish footballer *Ian McMillan (poet) Ian McMill ...
wrote of it, "Anthony Etherin is the true king of the jewels to be found in restricted language and I’ve really been enjoying his brilliant new collection… Anthony mines language to come up with things that are breathtaking and almost beyond meaning."


The Robots of Babylon

In October 2023, Penteract Press published ''The Robots of Babylon'', Etherin's third full-length collection. Inspired by twentieth-century pulp fiction tropes, ''The Robots of Babylon'' presents several new literary constraints, including the slice and aelindivider. It also features Etherin’s first published works of
alliterative verse In meter (poetry), prosody, alliterative verse is a form of poetry, verse that uses alliteration as the principal device to indicate the underlying Metre (poetry), metrical structure, as opposed to other devices such as rhyme. The most commonly s ...
. The book received blurbs from
Jane Espenson Jane Espenson (born July 14, 1964) is an American television writer and producer. Espenson has worked on both situation comedies and serial dramas. She had a five-year stint as a writer and producer on ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' and shared ...
and
David Astle David Robert Astle (born 9 November 1961) is an Australian TV personality and radio host, and writer of non-fiction, fiction and plays. He also co-hosted the SBS Television (SBS) show ''Letters and Numbers'', as the dictionary expert, in company ...
.


Knit Ink

An omnibus edition of Etherin’s work, ''Knit Ink (and Other Poems)'' was published by
Deep Vellum Deep Vellum is a non-profit publishing house that specializes in translated literature based in Dallas, Texas. Deep Vellum is the largest publisher of literature in translation. Its authors include Jon Fosse who received the 2023 Nobel Prize in ...
in late 2024.


Aelindromes

Probably Etherin's biggest stylistic innovation is the aelindrome, a constraint that divides letters up according to numerical sequences. Etherin invented the restriction in 2012, after he saw the potential of composing palindromes by pairs of letters (the earliest palindrome-by-pairs was a tribute to Albert Einstein, ‘Intense ion, Einstein!’). They have been described as an "even more fiendish" constraint than palindromes and anagrams. An aelindrome divides its letters by varying the number of letters by which it is a palindrome. For example, the line ‘melody, a bloody elm’ is aelindromic in 1-2-3-4, because the letter units are cut up as follows: 1(m) — 2(el) — 3(ody) — 4(ablo) before being reversed around their pivot. Etherin describes the Aelindrome thusly: “In an aelindrome, the unit is changing constantly according to a premeditated numerical palindrome.” Etherin's book Stray Arts includes aelindromes that use the first twenty digits of famous irrational numbers, such as pi,
Euler's Number The number is a mathematical constant approximately equal to 2.71828 that is the base of the natural logarithm and exponential function. It is sometimes called Euler's number, after the Swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler, though this can ...
, and the
golden ratio In mathematics, two quantities are in the golden ratio if their ratio is the same as the ratio of their summation, sum to the larger of the two quantities. Expressed algebraically, for quantities and with , is in a golden ratio to if \fr ...
.


Books and chapbooks

* Cellar (Penteract Press, 2018) * Danse Macabre (above/ground press, 2018) * Quartets (Penteract Press, 2019) * Otherworld (no press, 2019) * Stray Arts (and Other Inventions) (Penteract Press, 2019) * Thaumaturgy (above/ground press, 2020) * The Utu Sonnets (Penteract Press, 2021) * Slate Petals (and Other Wordscapes) (Penteract Press, 2021) * The Noson Sonnets (Penteract Press, 2022) * The Robots of Babylon (Penteract Press, 2023) * Knit Ink (and Other Poems) (Deep Vellum, 2024)


References


External links


Etherin's Twitter Profile

Etherin's work on Wordpress

PenteractPress

The Penteract Podcast
{{DEFAULTSORT:Etherin, Anthony 21st-century British poets Palindromists Constrained writing 1981 births Living people British male poets