AVC - Anthony Vahni Capildeo Archive

AVC

Collection

Anthony Vahni Capildeo Archive

1963-2023

8 boxes; 1 exhibition box; 0.25m of publications. Mixed

Authors, English -- 21st century
Poetry
Ekphrasis

Capildeo, Anthony VahniAnthony Vahni Capildeo is a writer of poetry and non-fiction. They are Writer in Residence and Professor at the University of York; a former Visiting Scholar at Pembroke College, Cambridge; an Honorary Student of Christ Church, Oxford; and a Trustee of the Charles Causley Trust. Recent books include 'Like a Tree, Walking' (2021), which draws on their interest in ecopoetics and silence; 'Skin Can Hold' (2019), which arose from collaborations in various forms of performance; 'Venus as a Bear' (2018), poems which centre on ‘things’ in the tradition of Francis Ponge and Gertrude Stein; 'Measures of Expatriation' (2016), which crosses the borders between prose and poetry; and 'Utter' (2013), inspired by lexicography and the sense of language as multifoliate, not monolithic. They have also published many small-press pamphlets and intermedia works. Their longstanding commitment to non-fiction has included pieces on microtravel; cocoa growing in Trinidad; an English feminist gardener in Kenya; and citizenship in Brexit Britain. Capildeo lives in Scotland, and often returns to Trinidad, their birthplace. Capildeo has a passion for Trinidad’s traditional masquerade and is a band member of Belmont Exotic Stylish Sailors.

The collection has been loaned ('storehouse model') to the BACW by AVC.

This catalogue entry, summarising the collection is just one of several routes through the archive of Anthony Vahni Capildeo (for traditional inventory see section 2 below).

Section One: the following resources are useful additional references to read when encountering the archive or preparing for a visit:

i) The 2002-2003 Mellon Foundation funded project which brought Capildeo's archive to UEA employed a 'community led' methodology, discussed in detail in the publication: 'Towards a Centre for Contemporary Poetry in the Archive: Final Report' (published by the University of East Anglia and available via our Website www.uea.ac.uk/bacw or via the UEA's Publishing Project)

ii) Capildeo's wrote creatively inspired by the project the material of which is published separately in the pamphlet: 'Uncollected: Poets' (again available via our Website www.uea.ac.uk/bacw or via the UEA's Publishing Project).

iii) Working as a Poet in Residence on the project, alongside three other poets (Joelle Taylor, Jay Bernard and Gail McConnell) Capildeo engaged in a conversation with the then Visiting Poetry Fellow, Will Harris, to discuss their creative process and their archive. An extract of this conversation is transcribed in the aforementioned: 'Towards a Centre for Contemporary Poetry in the Archive: Final Report'.

iv) A digital exhibition site: https://contemporarypoetryarchive.omeka.net/ contains videos of events relating to the project, where Capildeo reflects on the process of archiving. In addition to Capildeo's own writing and recorded reflections on the archive, the site contains exhibits from their archive, curated and interpreted by UEA postgraduate students. Finally, Capildeo led a writing workshop at King's Lynn Public Library in Norfolk as part of the project and the public participants' responses are archived and a selection exhibited on the site.

Section Two: what follows is a more traditional inventory of the archive material deposited by Capildeo with some additional interpretation by Capildeo.

Anthony Vahni Capildeo provided a box listing with their deposit categorising the themes represented as follows:

Theme: ekphrasis; expanded translation; reworkings, including immersive theatre; influences.

The deposit is divided into different series as indicated below. Use right hand navigation links to browse scope and content summaries for these series:

AVC/1 - Influences
AVC/2 - Graduate and undergraduate studies
AVC/3 - Creative writing
AVC/4 - Theatre
AVC/5 - Creative miscellanea
AVC/6 - Notebooks
AVC/7 - Events and travel
AVC/8 - Objects
AVC/9 - Textiles and clothing
AVC/10 - Other media
AVC/11 - Publications

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