"Both analogy and allegory find lyric form and concrete-poetic form throughout Ancarrow’s book."

Los Angeles Review of Books

"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."

Harriet Books (Poetry Foundation)

"A lyric examination and play of etymologies, threading multiple languages and dense lyric, holding to small spaces and expansive perspectives. Ancarrow’s book-length suite threads through a sequence of self-contained and formally daring and fresh lyric sections that accumulate their way through the polyglot, akin to a field notes on language itself. . . . Ancarrow’s playful and quick wit speaks to interrelated and polyphonic meaning, pulling apart origins and conventions, and how deeply we are all interconnected. This is a startling and thoughtful debut."

rob mclennan's blog

“Ancarrow combines extreme precision with a wild imagination. In a ‘Note’ at the end of the book, he writes: ‘The etymologies in this book are correct, though not necessarily complete, sometimes poetically so.’ And therein lies the magic of Etymologies. The author seems to have made nothing up, to have been, it would appear, coolly objective throughout the writing of each study of a word’s origin. And yet, despite this claim, which I do not doubt, feelings and fancifulness emerge–like a swarm of genies freed from many bottles–at once impish, amatory, mysterious, provocative, funny, delightful, and dazzling.”

John Yau, Judge for the 2021 Omnidawn Open, and author of Genghis Chan on Drums

"Ancarrow's fabulist maxims are laced with surprises. His entries are either notational or so profound, they seem etched in stone: 'we live between impermanences of language—building a home is settling on translation.' Etymologies are glorious distillations of mischief and erudition."

Cathy Park Hong, author of Minor Feelings and Engine Empire

"With Etymologies, Ancarrow returns us to the source and medium of all literary art: language itself. Formally playful, brimming with knowledge, and a poetic event with the subtle, yet dazzling contours of a puzzle, this collection unveils new insights on every page. Etymologies marks a marvelous debut!"

John Keen, author of Punks: New and Selected Poems and Counternarratives