Desafinado [Paperback]

Anthony Joseph's postmodern linguistic experimentation, exemplifies many of the practices associated with radical 20th century avant-garde movements.Joseph's poetry imaginatively extends in a diasporic context a trajectory of experimentalist influences including dada, surrealism, Russian Formalism, Negritude, Beats, Language Poetry, and various contemporary African American and diasporic innovators including Kamau Brathwaite, Ted Joans, Amiri Baraka and Wilson Harris.

Dr. Lauri Ramey, Proffesor of English, California State University

2005 reprint of the legendary first collection from experimental UK based, Trinidadian poet Anthony Joseph includes illustrations by Adrian Owusu.

In 1994 I was living on Hornsey Road, North London at.Tuesday evenings i'd go to the Islington poetry workshop on Blackstock Road to share work and critique. I came home one night to news that my grandmother had just died in Trinidad. The book I was working on became a dedication to her. The title is Portuguese for 'slightly out of tune', which seemed to sum up both my mood at the time and the content as well.

Anthony Joseph, interviewed July 2005

About the Author
Poet and novelist Anthony Joseph was born in Trinidad and has lived in the UK since 1989. He is the author of two poetry collections, Desafinado and Teragaton, and a spoken word CD 'Liquid Textology: Readings From The African Origins of UFOs'. His innovate & unique poetry and prose has also been published in several anthologies and journals.

In September 2004 he was selected as one of fifty writers for the historic photo 'A Great Day' for his contribution to experimental and literary writing and performance in British contemporary literature. And in April 2005, he served as the British Council's first poet in residence at California State University, Los Angeles, working with undergraduates, graduates and students from the MA Poetry Class. His one-month residency included guest performances, presenting master classes in creative writing and guest lectures in Music Composition and Sociology classes in Race, Class and Gender.

He is working on his first novel, The African Origins of UFOs, an experimental work of ‘liquid text fiction’ and a heady fusion of sci-fi, Caribbean and Afro myths and jazz. An excerpt from the book has been published in the anthology Dark Matter: A century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora (Time Warner, 2000).

As a spoken word artist Joseph has performed internationally, touring the UK and Europe, Trinidad & the US. He was a featured artist on Mannafests' Mango Lick Tours 1999 & 2001 and on Renaissance Ones' Modern love UK & European Tour 2002. Most recently he has combined live music with text, performing with his quintet The Spasm Band.

Joseph is also a lecturer in Creative Writing and has taught at The University of Surrey, Roehampton & North London University where he taught Science Fiction writing. He currently lectures in Creative Writing at South Thames College.

THE ART OF AGEING

my brother dennis
became a father first
last friday
he called collect
from five rivers
i wept
a cold sweat
wet
at the best news
i’d heard all year

dennis laughed
i laughed
we laughed
like children

on my bedroom wall hangs
a time stained monochrome
of finger sucking innocence
it even smells
of 1970
of toy trucks
of mud
of saliva
coconut oil
talcum powder and now

dennis says

write me
i say
send me

some photographs