The Pickled Body issue 3.3

I have three new pieces in issue 3.3 (Winter 2017) of The Pickled Body - an issue subtitled 'A lot of what I like is trash'.

The Pickled Body is an online poetry and art magazine running since 2013 that focuses on the sensual. It is edited, designed and produced by Dimitra Xidous and Patrick Chapman.

The 3.3 'trash' issue ("all poetry is experience recycled") also features contributions from Margaret O'Brien, Nicola Jennings, Jeff Grubek, Órla Fay, Richard Biddle and Susanna Galbraith, while the featured artist is Martin de Porres Wright.

My three untitled poems are "created out of untreated text from anonymous sources on the internet," and are taken from a book-length piece I've been working on over the past while. My thanks to Dimitra and Patrick for publishing them.

Stone and Sea - Pafos2017 European Capital of Culture

On Monday 9 October I'll be reading at the opening of the poetry & photography exhibition Stone and Sea in Pafos Municipal Gallery.

Part of the Pafos2017 European Capital of Culture programme, Stone and Sea is "a poetic meeting and a photographic exhibition by Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot photographers, that have the stone and the sea as their points of reference; elements that are inextricably linked with the fate of Cypriot people and of crucial importance for the shaping of their temperament. The project combines a walk through rocks deeply rooted in the soil, statues and pebbles of the coastline, with the reflective gazing of the sea, which is anticipated as an uncorrupted cultural value, a place of eutopia open to diversity."

Readings by several invited poets with links to Cyprus will be accompanied by a trilingual presentation of the poems - in Greek, Turkish and English. I'm delighted that as part of this my poem 'Full Circle' from The Architecture of Chance has been translated into Greek by Despina Pyrketti and into Turkish by Aydin Mehmet Ali.

Start time is 7pm and admission is free. The exhibition runs until 23 October. My thanks to Nadia Stylianou and the Cultural Services of the Ministry of Education and Culture in Cyprus for their invitation and sponsorship.

Paris Lit Up no. 4

A new poem with title 'Lady Liberty with a deaths head visage...' is included in Paris Lit Up no. 4, nominally published in 2016 but out just last month.

This fourth edition of Paris Lit Up magazine - published by the Paris-based umbrella organisation of the same name that maintains an emphasis on transnational writers, artists and musicians - arrives, as the editors write in their foreword, at a crossroads: "as the world darkens with increasingly rigid identities, we ask ourselves how our creative endeavours can contest this narrowing vision". An answer appears in the notion of trans- ("transnational, transgressive, transitional, translational") which is the overall theme and title of the issue.

My piece is included in one of two specially curated sections: Malik Crumpler & Pansy Maurer-Alvarez (Poets Live) and Jennifer K Dick (Ivy Writers Paris) invited a small selection of participants in their respective series to contribute to the issue. I'm very happy to be part of the Poets Live section alongside Freke Räihä, Edmund Hardy, Fiona Sze-Lorrain, David Ishaya Osu, Kimberly Campanello, Nina Zivancevic, Christophe Lamiot Enos, and Elizabeth T. Gray, Jr.

My thanks to Pansy and Malik for asking, and for publishing my work.

Subcritical Tests, by Ailbhe Darcy & SJ Fowler (gorse editions)

It was a total pleasure and a privilege to work with Ailbhe & Steven as editor of this extraordinary book. My interventions were minimal, in truth, since the concept and execution of the work, despite or because of the presence of two individually strong poetic sensibilities, was of the highest order. Having witnessed this collaboration at its genesis while we toured together in September 2014 I was hardly surprised by this, and I'm very proud to be associated with this work.


Subcritical Tests, a book of poetry by Ailbhe Darcy & SJ Fowler, with cover design and interior illustrations by Niall McCormack, is now out. Subcritical Tests is the first title published by gorse editions.

"The nearness of nuclear holocaust, always just one clumsy accident away, forms an entry point into this record of a friendship. The poems in Subcritical Tests stubbornly make connections, ever conscious of the impending threat of annihilation. Oblique, modern, lyrical, humorous, these poems represent the range of Ailbhe Darcy and SJ Fowler‘s individual practices, modulated and melded through the collaborative process."



We will hold two launch events for Subcritical Tests. Please join us at either (or both!) if you can:

• On Monday 10 July we'll be at Sun & 13 Cantons, 21 Great Putney Street, Soho, London, for an evening with gorse featuring readings from Niven Govinden, Susana Medina and Colm O'Shea, followed by the presentation of Subcritical Tests.
• On Wednesday 12 July we'll be at Poetry Ireland, 11 Parnell Square East, for the book's Dublin launch.

About gorse editions:
gorse editions was set up in 2017. We are a boutique imprint devoted to finding and publishing the best innovative writing, from home and elsewhere. gorse editions is closely connected to our journal, and will act as a natural extension of themes and issues encompassing ideas and conversations already begun in our pages.

CORDA #1

I'm very happy to be contributing to the first issue of CORDA, a new biannual magazine published in London and exploring communal experience of connections in a time of new borders. Started in direct response to the Brexit vote, and edited by Livia Franchini with art direction by Sean P Haughton, CORDA publishes both writing and visual material.

My contribution has the title 'tanks rolled through our streets', and it is a borderless mashup of testimonies by young mother refugees to the US and 'below-the-line' commentary on the online article in which they were published.

Thanks to Livia Franchini for asking and for publishing this piece, and kudos to Liv and Sean for creating a space for writers & artists across Europe and elsewhere to "grieve/rage/celebrate friendship together in the wake of Brexit".

Full list of contributors to CORDA #1: Cecilia Zoe Grandi, Ginevra Shay, Craig Clark & Caterina Pinzauti, Laura Merizalde & Dizz Tate, Jade King, Flaminia Cavagnaro, Katy Cotterell, Aria Aber, Adriana Rodrigues, Serena Braida, Christodoulos Makris, Rebecca Tamás, Lauren Sedger, Alexander Townend & Emily Jane McCartan, Eley Williams, Sarah E. Pace, Maria Cecilia Tedemalm, Simon Barraclough, Joe Briggs, Cliodhna Walsh, Katrine Dybbroe Møller, SJ Fowler & Ariadne Radi Cor, Thomas Chadwick, Dan Negară, Eilidh Urquhart & Caterina Pinzauti, Sapphira Frankl-Slater, Efe Duyan, Livia Franchini & Efe Duyan, Thom Dinsdale, Alice Ash, Charlotte Heather, TM Leach.

gorse No. 8

‘Excuse me but I just have to explode this body off me…’

gorse no. 8 is now out, featuring essays by Alice Butler, Sinéad Gleeson, Diarmuid Hester, Richard Kovitch, and Dimitra Xidous; fiction by Sheila Armstrong, Alex McElroy, Colm O'Shea, David Rose, and Hugh Smith; interviews with Dragana Jurisic (by Orla Fitzpatrick), and Ulay (by Margarita Meklina); Irish by Máirtín Coilféir, Caitríona Ní Chléirchín, and Alan Titley.

I'm pleased to be publishing poetry by Ivy Alvarez in the form of six multifarious poems; 'Aristophanes' People', a sequence by Kevin Cahill on gender diversity and the boundaries of the gender construct; three full colour brut art poems by SJ Fowler exploring handwriting, markmaking, illustration and legibility; and four poems by Melissa Lee-Houghton from a recent body of work.

Susan Tomaselli's editorial, taking in among others Claude Cahun, Kathy Acker and Francis Bacon, is published online, and is accessible with a password printed in each copy.

Cover artwork and design is, as ever, by Niall McCormack.

*

Join us for launch 2.0 (The City launch) on Wednesday 19 April 2017 at 7.30pm in The Liquor Rooms (5 Wellington Quay, Dublin 2) with readings by Sheila Armstrong, Sinéad Gleeson, Caitríona Ní Chléirchín, Colm O’Shea, and Dimitra Xidous.

gorse reading at Mountains to Sea Book Festival

On Friday 24 March I'll be reading with Aodán McCardle and Suzanne Walsh as part of a gorse showcase reading at Mountains to Sea Book Festival in Dun Laoghaire.

The event is part of the Poetry Now strand of the festival programme, and it is billed as "a sampling of poets working at the boundaries of performance, visual art and poetry whose work has appeared in gorse, the Dublin-based journal that has quickly established itself as an exciting presence on the European literary scene". It takes place at dlr LexIcon, The Studio with a start time of 8.30pm. Tickets are €10 / €8 conc.

The reading will be followed by a reception marking the publication of gorse No. 8.

Thanks to Alice Lyons, Poetry Now curator at Mountains to Sea, for inviting gorse to be involved in this year's edition. PN2017 boasts an exciting lineup also including readings from Vona Groarke, Paula Meehan, Mairéad Byrne, Matthew Welton, Sarah Howe, Nick Laird, Michael Longley, Fanny Howe, Harry Clifton, Katie Donovan, Vahni Capildeo and Stephen Sexton.

gorse No. 7

‘Literature is the question minus the answer.’

gorse No. 7 is now out. Themed around the concept of 'codes', its cover art is as ever by Niall McCormack, and each copy comes with a 'one-time pad' for its decoding. The issue features essays from Scott Esposito, Jonathan Gibbs, John Z Komurki, Shona McCombes, and Pierre Senges (translated by Jacob Siefring); fiction from Chris Beausang, Owen Booth, Celine Fox, Anthony McGuinness, and CD Rose; Irish writing from Colm Breathnach & Liam Mac Cóil; and an interview with Alan Moore by Pádraig Ó Méalóid.

I'm very happy to be publishing poetry from Cork-based Sheila Mannix in the form of 'Burning Boat', a long hybrid poem; three new poems, including a triptych, by Michael Naghten Shanks (Dublin); four poems by Brooklyn-based Chris Campanioni from his project 'The Internet is for Real'; and four visual erasure poems by John Rodzvilla (Boston, MA).

Susan Tomaselli's editorial 'Falsing (After Marconi)' is a meditation on coding and transmission through "radio and otherworldly broadcasts," in which, in addition to Marconi, there are mentions or quotes from Tom McCarthy, Brion Gysin, Tacita Dean, WG Sebald's Rings of Saturn, and Finnegan's Wake.

You can order issue 7 from the gorse shop. It will soon also be available from our stockists.

In the meantime, join us to celebrate the launch of gorse No. 7 on Wednesday 11 January in The Liquor Rooms (5 Wellington Quay, Dublin 2) with readings from Chris Beausang, Anthony McGuinness, Sheila Mannix, and Michael Naghten Shanks. 7pm start, and admission is free.

if we keep drawing cartoons (If A Leaf Falls Press)

My limited edition pamphlet if we keep drawing cartoons was published by If a Leaf Falls Press earlier this month.

If a Leaf Falls Press is a micropress run from Edinburgh by Sam Riviere, and publishes poetry with an emphasis on appropriative and arbitrary writing processes. Now in its Second Season, the press has since its inception in 2015 published simple, elegant pamphlets with work by some exciting writers and artists including Emily Berry, Crispin Best, nick-e melville, Maria Fusco, Rachael Allen and Sam Riviere himself. My thanks to Sam for inviting me to join this distinguished list.

if we keep drawing cartoons is published in an edition of 36. It comprises ten untitled sections/extracts from the book-length work (in progress) I've been occupied with since mid-2014.

As is the case with most of its titles, the press sold out of if we keep drawing cartoons very quickly.

If a Leaf Falls Press publications are archived at The Poetry Library London and Edinburgh College of Art.

Featured Writer in Icarus Magazine (Vol 67, No. 1)

I'm very happy to have new work, as Featured Writer, in the latest issue (Vol 67, No. 1) of Icarus Magazine.

Icarus is a student magazine based at Trinity College Dublin. It is Ireland's longest running literary journal, still a print publication but with extended online versions of each issue. Founded in 1950 by Alec Reid, it has appeared three times a year since and publishes writing mainly by students, staff and alumni of the University. Former Icarus editors include Iain Sinclair, Maurice Scully, Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin, David Wheatley, Selina Guinness and Sue Rainsford, while some notable former contributors are Seamus Heaney, Louis MacNeice, Eavan Boland, Sinéad Morrissey, Justin Quinn, Thom Gunn, Colm Tóibín, Vona Groarke, Desmond Hogan and Kevin Barry.

My contribution 'Five Poems' consists of five extracts from my ongoing book-length work concerned with among other things the concept of reading as a creative process.

My thanks to current editors Will Fleming and Leo Dunsker for their interest in my work.

Critical Bastards issue 13

My performance piece 'Work Sharing' appears in the all-audio issue 13 of Critical Bastards magazine.



Critical Bastards is a creative art criticism magazine that engages with contemporary visual art, publishes writing by artists, and is committed to creating conversations between all parts of the island of Ireland. Past contributors include Dennis McNulty, Rebecca O'Dwyer, Jan Carson, Sarah Pierce, Maria Fusco and Adrian Duncan among many others.

Commissioned by Critical Bastards co-editor Jennie Taylor, and performed and recorded in the morning of 5 October 2016, 'Work Sharing' is one of nine creative responses to the word 'Work' featured in issue 13. The other contributors are Sue Rainsford, Michelle Hall, Fiona Gannon, Renèe Helèna Browne, Jonathan Mayhew, RchlTrsRs: Re: Fwd: Re: Work, Rebecca Dunne & Eoghan McIntyre, and James Merrigan.

My thanks to editors Lily Cahill, Deborah Madden, Jennie Taylor and Suzanne Walsh. The issue was launched on Wednesday 23 November 2016 in Studio 6, Temple Bar Gallery + Studios, with performances from Sue Rainsford and myself.

Poetry Ireland Review 118: The Rising Generation

I was pleased to be invited by current editor Vona Groarke to contribute to a special issue of Poetry Ireland Review titled 'The Rising Generation'.

Much like The Poetry Book Society UK’s  Next Generation Poets, which is published once a decade, Poetry Ireland Review 118: The Rising Generation (April 2016) aims to offer "the most comprehensive, insightful and enjoyable overview of what we can expect of Irish poetry in the coming times." To this end, Groarke selected thirty-six poets who published a first book or pamphlet in the past five years, with each poet represented by two pages of new poetry and their responses to a wide-ranging and generally light-spirited questionnaire.

My poetry contribution consists of two excerpts ('trying to cook breakfast...' and 'In '87 Huey Lewis...') from a book-length work-in-progress composed using appropriative processes.

Groarke writes in her editorial: "I also acknowledge, as anthologists must, that in time this selection may look fusty or airy; that I may have gotten it all wrong, (there, I’ve said it), and that in twenty-five years, the poets who will have made a difference are not those featured here. It’s possible, but I doubt it. I believe there’s good and exciting work here, work that will continue to be honoured and enjoyed in all its many shades."

The list of 'The Rising Generation' poets includes several friends and people I've worked with in one form or another, as well as one or two names new to me:

Graham Allen, Tara Bergin, Dylan Brennan, Sarah Clancy, Jane Clarke, Adam Crothers, Paula Cunningham, Ailbhe Darcy, Martin Dyar, Elaine Gaston, Eleanor Hooker, Caoilinn Hughes, Andrew Jamison, Victoria Kennefick, Marcus Mac Conghail, Robert Herbert McClean, Afric McGlinchey, Jim Maguire, Christodoulos Makris, Geraldine Mitchell, Julie Morrissy, Emma Must, Doireann Ní Ghríofa, Mary Noonan, Rebecca O'Connor, Ciarán O'Rourke, Michelle O'Sullivan, Breda Wall Ryan, Stephen Sexton, Michael Naghten Shanks, Róisín Tierney, Jessica Traynor, Eoghan Walls, Adam White, Adam Wyeth.

Poetry Ireland Review 118: The Rising Generation is available to order directly from Poetry Ireland.

gorse interview on 3:AM Magazine

Susan Tomaselli & I were recently interviewed by 3:AM Magazine's Tristan Foster for a feature on gorse.

In response to his perceptive questions we discuss the journal's history, scope, outlook and goals, and offer thoughts on editing a print journal with an interest in experimental writing as well as related topics such as the potential of literature, the avant-garde, and "transgressing boundaries".

We also announce plans for an associated imprint set to begin operations in 2017. A publishing statement will follow, but we were very happy to reveal that the first two titles will be an anthology of essays edited by Joanna Walsh, and Subcritical Tests, a book of collaborative poetry by Ailbhe Darcy & SJ Fowler.

An excerpt from Subcritical Tests appeared in gorse No. 3. Below is Ailbhe Darcy & SJ Fowler at the Cork leg of Yes But Are We Enemies:




The feature was published on Bloomsday 2016. Many thanks to Tristan Foster and to 3:AM Magazine.

Compass Lines #2

We're in Belfast for Compass Lines #2, where I'll be in conversation with Miriam Gamble and Nerys Williams, and where the poets will present their collaboration City of Two Suns, specially commissioned for the event and published that day by the Irish Writers Centre. In addition, earlier in the day they will deliver a joint writing workshop in the Ulster Museum to a group composed of participants in various existing writing classes in Belfast.

Compass Lines is a writers’ exchange project aiming to establish links between writers and communities in the North and South of Ireland, while additionally examining relationships between the East and West of these islands, through workshops, public discussions, and the commissioning of new collaborative writing.

Developed by poet, editor and curator Christodoulos Makris in collaboration with the Irish Writers Centre as producing organisation, and with the participation of the Crescent Arts Centre as partner venue.


Compass Lines #2
Miriam Gamble & Nerys Williams
Wednesday 11 May 2016, Crescent Arts Centre, Belfast
7.30pm, entry via Eventbrite €8/€6 or on the door €10/€8

Miriam Gamble is from Belfast, but now lives in Edinburgh. She is a graduate of both Oxford and Queens University Belfast and in 2007 she won an Eric Gregory Award for her pamphlet with Tall-lighthouse entitled This Man’s Town. Her first full-length collection, The Squirrels are Dead (2010) won a Somerset Maugham Award in 2011, and Pirate Music followed in 2014, both of which are published by Bloodaxe.

Originally from West Wales, Nerys Williams lectures in American Literature at University College, Dublin and is a Fulbright Alumnus of UC Berkeley. She has published poems and essays widely and is the author of A Guide to Contemporary Poetry (Edinburgh UP, 2011) and a study of contemporary American poetics, Reading Error (Peter Lang, 2007). Nerys’s first volume, Sound Archive (Seren, 2011), was shortlisted for the Felix Denis (Forward) prize and won the Rupert and Eithne Strong first volume prize in 2012. She is the current holder of the Poetry Ireland Ted McNulty Poetry Prize.

gorse No. 5

Issue 5 of gorse was published at the end of March, ushering in the second phase of the journal: publication frequency is now up to three times a year (March, July, November) with the page count set at 200 pages. The new single issue price is €13.00.

“It’s certainly a work of great beauty even before you open it. After only four issues it’s become one of the most regarded journals around.” – Daniel McCabe, Magalleria

In this issue I'm proud and excited to be publishing brand new poetry from SJ Fowler ('Prism' - from a sequence celebrating Edward Snowden), Linda Kemp (four poems), Alan Jude Moore ('Gabriel'), Doireann Ní Ghríofa (two poems), and James Wilkes (the sequence 'Sputniks').

Susan Tomaselli's editorial 'The Geometry Blinked Ruin Unimaginable' introduces the themes running through the issue, discussing among much else Andy Warhol's 'Death and Disaster' series, Rachel Kushner's The Flamethrowers, Marinetti and The Futurist Manifesto, and Picasso's 'Guernica'.

gorse No. 5 also includes essays by Diarmuid Hester, Darragh McCausland, Nathan Hugh O’Donnell and Benjamin Robinson; fiction by Will Ashon, Maria Fusco, Olivia Heal, D Joyce-Ahearne, Helen McClory, Simon Okotie and Eimear Ryan; interviews with Owen Hatherley by Robert Barry and with Sarah Pierce by Claire Potter; and aphorisms by Susana Medina, translated by Jonathan Dunne.

You can buy gorse No. 5 individually from the website or you can purchase a subscription. Back issues (except No. 1) are also available from the gorse shop. In addition, the journal is stocked in selected bookshops.

Please join us in celebrating the launch of gorse no. 5 in The Liquor Rooms (5 Wellington Quay, Dublin 2) on Wednesday 20 April with readings by D Joyce-Ahearne, Darragh McCausland, Alan Jude Moore, Nathan Hugh O’Donnell, and Eimear Ryan. Start time is 7.30pm and admission is free.

some mark made

some mark made is a new limited edition publication that considers hybrid, material and intellectually rigorous literary practices. Edited by Sue Rainsford, it features "experimental and speculative writing in the veins of poetry, prose and criticism from Claire Farley, Shauna Barbosa, Caroline Doolin, Michael Naghten Shanks, Michelle Hall, Jonelle Mannion, Christodoulos Makris, Julie Morrissy and Sue Rainsford."

Rainsford writes in her editorial: "Often, when literary activity foregrounds its visual or tactile elements, when it embraces process or takes place away from the immediate terrain of the page, it’s ascribed titles such as ‘hybrid’, ‘performative’ or ‘experimental’. These terms seem to soften boundary lines so that bodies of writing can be intuitive rather than narrative, sensory rather than descriptive. It is worth remembering, however, that literature is by nature expansive, tactile and interrogative."

My contribution to some mark made bears the title 'people power and dance culture...' and is taken from a new work in progress that investigates among other things decentralised modes of communication, the fluidity of identity in online environments, and spaces between web-based and physical writing. This from Rainsford's editorial:

"Christodoulos Makris’ poem also draws on the fecundity of linguistic forms. Alternating between anecdotal and lyrical, Makris offers us a rumination that is implicitly interrogative, employing words as dynamic units and agrammatical fragments. While the poem compels us to read it aloud, speech is conjured even by the most cursory glance at the page, and the reader apprehends the subject of the poem as well as the textural power of syntax. It calls to mind Derrida’s pneumatological writing, in that the poem sees words brought close again to voice and breath."

some mark made will be launched on Friday 4 March at The Winding Stair bookshop in Dublin, with readings from Shauna Barbosa, Julie Morrissy and myself. Start time is 6pm and admission is free.

Compass Lines #1

Compass Lines is a writers’ exchange project aiming to establish links between writers and communities in the North and South of Ireland, while additionally examining relationships between the East and West of these islands, through workshops, public discussions, and the commissioning of new collaborative writing.

Compass Lines aims to encourage artistic fusion and integrate a sometimes fragmented audience, geographically and otherwise, through the strategy of combining writers with various concerns and backgrounds. Eschewing their comfort zones and usual patterns of working presents a diversion and a challenge to the writers, and a way of instigating discussions about ideas of process and place that reside in contemporary writing and which are often ignored through traditional views of literature.

Developed by poet, editor and curator Christodoulos Makris in collaboration with the Irish Writers Centre as producing organisation, and with the participation of the Crescent Arts Centre as partner venue, Compass Lines will comprise a series of enterprises, alternately in Dublin and in Belfast, each with the participation of two writers – one with connections to the north of Ireland and one to the south.

Each enterprise consists of three strands:

1/ Community Connection: the writers visit an organisation or group in the hosting city to conduct workshops. By prior arrangement.

2/ Discussion: a moderated public event during which the writers will discuss their practice, focusing on process, craft, dissemination etc. The event will include readings and scope for Q & A sessions. Public, details below.

3/ New Writing: specially-commissioned collaborative writing to be published as an individual limited edition pamphlet. Available exclusively with entry to the public discussion.


Compass Lines #1
Karl Whitney & Philip Terry
Wednesday 2 March 2016, 7.30pm, Irish Writers Centre, Dublin
Tickets via Eventbrite: €8/6 | on the door: €10/8

Karl Whitney is a writer of non-fiction whose first book, Hidden City: Adventures and Explorations in Dublin was published by Penguin in 2014. In 2013 he received the John Heygate award for travel writing. He has a BA in English and History from University College Dublin, an MA in Modernism from University of East Anglia, and a PhD in History from University College Dublin. He is a Research Associate at the UCD Humanities Institute.

Philip Terry is currently Director of the Centre for Creative Writing at the University of Essex. Among his books are the lipogrammatic novel The Book of Bachelors, the edited story collection Ovid Metamorphosed, a translation of Raymond Queneau’s last book of poems Elementary Morality, and the poetry volumes Oulipoems, Oulipoems 2, Shakespeare’s Sonnets, and Advanced Immorality. His novel tapestry was shortlisted for the 2013 Goldsmith’s Prize. Dante’s Inferno, which relocates Dante’s action to current day Essex, was published in 2014, as well as a translation of Georges Perec’s I Remember.

• Days, by Philip Terry & Karl Whitney, a specially commissioned pamphlet published by the Irish Writers Centre, will be available exclusively with entry to the public discussion.

• On the evening of Tuesday 1 March, Karl Whitney will visit Malahide public library to lead a writing workshop with title 'Writing About Place', co-organised with Fingal Libraries (places limited - to book please contact Malahide library); and Philip Terry will deliver a workshop on 'Poetry and Oulipo' for students at the Irish Centre for Poetry Studies, Mater Dei Institute.

Centrifugal on Mexico City Lit

The excellent online journal Mexico City Lit has published two extracts from our bilingual poetry exchange anthology Centrifugal: Contemporary Poetry of Guadalajara and Dublin.

Part one appeared last summer, and consists of Luis Eduardo García’s Spanish translation of two of my pieces followed by my versions in English of some poems by Luis Eduardo. Part two was published earlier this month, and comprises Xitlalitl Rodríguez Mendoza's translation of a poem by Alan Jude Moore, and Catherine Walsh's versions of several shorts by Laura Solórzano.

Thanks to John Z. Komurki and Tim MacGabhann of Mexico City Lit for their interest in our project & book. There are some copies of Centrifugal still available from Books Upstairs and The Winding Stair bookshops in Dublin.

Futures: Poetry of the Greek Crisis

Futures: Poetry of the Greek Crisis is a timely and powerful new anthology in English offering "a poetic reply to the social and economic disaster which still threatens to overturn the whole European project." Edited by Theodoros Chiotis and published by Penned In The Margins, it features some of the most daring new voices in Greek poetry as well as international poets with Greek connections, with work that "explores the gradual, often violent, modification of personal and collective identity in a time of crisis."

I'm very happy to be contributing to Futures with 'Civilisation's Golden Dawn: A Slide Show', taken from my book The Architecture of Chance.

The anthology features poems written directly in English or in translation from the Greek, with the contributors' list including many exceptional poets such as Tom Chivers, Emily Critchley, Katerina Iliopoulou, Sophie Mayer, Eftychia Panagiotou, Eleni Sikelianos, A.E. Stallings, George Ttoouli and Chiotis himself.

Osmosis at Filmbase for Temple Bar Arts and Politics Weekend

Osmosis is a visual art exhibition at Filmbase in Dublin's Temple Bar in which selected artists explore perceptions of memory and identity through small concept-driven objects. Curated by Debbie Paul of the Debbie Paul Gallery, the exhibition is part of 'View - Temple Bar Arts and Politics Weekend', a festival run by the Temple Bar Company to mark the 25th anniversary of the redevelopment of the area.

I'm contributing to Osmosis with 'A Social Osmosis Intimated (Life Goes On)', a new commissioned piece written as a creative response to ideas, concepts and processes in the work shown in the exhibition. It will be available during the exhibition - and will also serve as an introduction to a subsequent publication from Chrome Yellow Books. Also printed will be short essays by the four participating artists: 'Beauty in Mindfulness' by Sam Tho Duong; 'Meaning and Memories' by Mirei Takeuchi; 'Identity' by Eunmi Chun; and 'Capturing Memories' by Mitzuki Takahashai.

In addition, on Saturday 21 November at 12 noon I will be taking part in a public discussion exploring themes raised in the artists' essays. The event will take place at Filmbase, and will feature participants from diverse backgrounds adding to the idea of identity in the wider community. Free, but booking is required.

The exhibition runs between 19 and 22 November 2015 and will also include café conversations and floor talks with the exhibition artists.