UK-Cypriot Anthony Anaxagorou wins Ondaatje Prize for poetry

UK-Cypriot Anthony Anaxagorou won a literature prize for his book of poetry ‘Heritage Aesthetics’, reports from London said.

According to a report in the Guardian, Anaxagorou won the £10,000 Ondaatje prize for his work, which judges described as “beautiful” and a collection “that pushes the confines of form and language to locate a new aesthetic with which to address the legacies of colonisation.”

The award is run annually by the Royal Society of Literature and recognises an outstanding work of fiction, nonfiction or poetry that evokes a sense of place.

Anaxagorou’s book explores time and place during British-imperialism and present-day racism.

The chair of judges, journalist Samira Ahmed, said his poetry “is beautiful, but does not sugar-coat. The arsenic of historical imperial arrogance permeates the Britain he explores in his writing. And the joy of this collection comes from his strength, knowledge, maturity, but also from deeply felt love.”

Anaxagorou’s collection is shaped by his family’s migratory history between Cyprus and the UK.

Also on the judging panel were poets Roger Robinson and Joelle Taylor.

Robinson said Anaxagorou “lets the narrative of the poems fracture as if somehow there has been a traumatic event, and that fracture became a form by deconstruction of texts and literatures to make comment not only on them but also on the fact that Cyprus has been shaped by 2,000 years of colonial rule”.

Taylor said Heritage Aesthetics “pushes the confines of form and language to locate a new aesthetic with which to address the legacies of colonisation. A tour guide, an archive, a personal meditation on belonging. Beautiful.”

Anaxagorou runs Out-Spoken, a monthly poetry and music night at London’s Southbank Centre. In 2015, he set up Out-Spoken Press, which publishes poetry and critical writing with a focus on voices underrepresented in the publishing industry.