Tonight Walter Ancarrow will read from his debut book of poetry, Etymologies, and briefly discuss the history of the history of words, including what gets left out in traditional etymology – the "study of truth" in Greek. He will be joined by fellow poet and playwright Robert Andrew Perez, author of the field, who will be reading old and new work.

Bios: 

Walter Ancarrow lives in New York City and sometimes Alexandria, Egypt. He is the author of Etymologies, selected by John Yau as winner of the 2021 Omnidawn Open, and a runner-up in the 2021 92Y Discovery Award for emerging writers.

Robert Andrew Perez is a drag performer, writer, and cancer survivor thriving in Oakland with a boy and a reactive dog. In drag he performs as Phoebe Cakes and is the mother of the House of Cakes. His poetry writing can be found in print in journals like The Laurel Review and Fourteen Hills, and online in such publications such as Vinyl and The Awl and Diagram. His 2016 book, the field, published by Omnidawn, was nominated for the Northern California Book Award. His 2020 unromantic dramedy, Stone|Fruit, showed at 12 festivals and is available to stream on Amazon. Phoebe performs regularly in San Francisco and Oakland.