A poetry collection that playfully questions the meanings of words. Walter Ancarrow’s collection
Etymologiesconsiders language as a process, rather than as a singular fixed history. These poems build imaginative worlds with a variety of creative word uses. They form a playful amalgamation of linguistic interpretations that flips and questions conventional narratives about word origins—including the idea that clear origins even exist. Throughout the collection, Ancarrow questions the intent of writers who use etymology in attempts to prove a specific meaning for any word. In so doing,
Etymologiespays particular attention to relationships between the cultures and conflicts, the migrations and hegemonies, that create our words, and it considers how their meanings are furthered by us as we keep them alive through speech.
Etymologieswon Omnidawn’s 2021 Open Poetry Book Prize, selected by John Yau.
Walter Ancarrowis the author ofEtymologies. He is a 2025 National Endowment for the Arts fellow and a 2026 writer in residence at Nawat Fes in Fes, Morocco.
"Both analogy and allegory find lyric form and concrete-poetic form throughout Ancarrow’s book."
"Ancarrow's Etymologies, mostly comprised of brief prose pieces, opens with three words: 'ahuakatl / aguacate / avocado,' encompassing Aztec origins, Spanish colonialism, and branding at the hands of California farmers in the early twentieth century. This entry, and the collection's closing two words 'banana / banana'—which follows, from the previous page, 'A search ensued for the loose word, that if pulled out, would cause indescribable destruction'—frame the book’s imaginative linguistic dives."
"A lyric examination and play of etymologies, threading multiple languages and dense lyric, holding to small spaclSw
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