The Architecture of Chance reviewed by Máighréad Medbh

In a post entitled 'Architectonics', writer and poet Máighréad Medbh considers The Architecture of Chance from multiple perspectives, discussing it against writers as disparate as Italo Calvino, Anaïs Nin, Clive James, Steven Pinker, Deleuze & Guattari and others.

The review includes several quotable extracts: "The Architecture of Chance is a cultural panorama;" or "... glows with a clear, intense, subtly reliable light;" or even "Whenever I hear or read Christodoulos Makris, I'm struck by the absence of the kind of emotional hooks that are so often demanded by an audience." But to appreciate the depth of its engagement with the book it needs to be read in its entirety.

I'm grateful to Máighréad Medbh for her interest in my work, for her attention and close reading of the book.

launch party: The Architecture of Chance

Wurm Press

is delighted to mark the publication of

The Architecture of Chance

by

Christodoulos Makris

with a launch party

on Wednesday 8th April 2015

at

The Black Sheep

(downstairs function room)

61 Capel St, Dublin 1

from 6.30pm

launch speech by Maurice Scully

music from i am niamh

poetry happenings

discounted books

nibbles

ALL WELCOME

The Architecture of Chance

My new book The Architecture of Chance is now out from Wurm Press:

Christodoulos Makris’ second full collection, blends painstaking poetic craft with the accidental hazards of found text and overheard sample. As challenging as it is accessible, these poems comment wittily yet unsparingly on the cultural, economic and political textures of twenty-first century life.

"A forerunner, in Irish poetry and Irish poetry publishing."

- Harry Clifton, The Irish Times

"We can distinguish two types of cityscape: those which are formed deliberately, and others which develop unintentionally. The former derive from the artistic will that is realised in squares, vistas, arrangements of buildings, and effects of perspective which Baedeker generally illuminates with a star. The latter on the other hand come into being without having been planned in advance. They are not compositions like Pariser Platz or La Concorde which owe their existence to a single architectural conception, rather they are creations of chance, which cannot be accounted for. Wherever a mass of stone and lines of streets, whose components result from completely different interests, come together, there you will find this kind of cityscape, which has never been the focus of any interest as such. It is no more designed than nature itself, and resembles a landscape in that it asserts itself unconsciously. Without a thought for how it appears, it slumbers through time."

- Siegfried Kracauer, Seen from the Window (Aus den Fenster Gesehen), trans. Lyn Marven

Litany of the City and Other Poems, by Karl Parkinson

As might be expected from the work of a poet active in Dublin's spoken word scene, Litany of the City displays a neo-beat, incantatory quality throughout, often slipping into something like prayer. But unlike much work thriving in performance, Karl Parkinson's poems translate to print with their power undiluted. There's relish for the complexity of language, sending the poet into reveries that produce ecstatic visions; and there's unwavering faith in the power of the poet as seer, truth-speaker and healer. In the titular sequence particularly, some of the disturbing realities of contemporary Dublin are put under stark light - with the poet in sympathy with those neglected by the powers-that-be.

Litany of the City and Other Poems, by Karl Parkinson, is now available from Wurm Press. A launch, with an introduction from Dave Lordan and including an open-mic session, takes place this coming Wednesday 4 September 2013 at McGrattan's Bar, Baggot Street, Dublin 2. 8pm start.

A First Book of Frags, by Dave Lordan (or, Dave Lordan is mad)

In Ireland telling the truth is a symptom of madness. Dave Lordan is mad. Vision is a seeing into the given and at the same time a seeing beyond the given into its as yet unrealised potentials. In sixteen wicked and often wildly funny fictions he takes the absurdities of life in contemporary Ireland to their logical, apocalyptic extremes. This haterage has a grotesque, mythical quality. It's a relentless and ultra-committed attempt to overturn every oppressive stone and expose to unforgiving light the grotesqueness festering underneath. And yes, hateful rage is put forward as an appropriate literary response. Every paragraph I write seems to be written by a totally different person, or by a different part of me at least. His ventriloquist forms and vulgar mouth-grenades challenge arguments for the validity of polite or officially-sanctioned language. The most resonant words in any tongue are the words for the most powerful scents of existence: Fuck, Shit and Kill.


A First Book of Frags, by Dave Lordan, is out now from Wurm Press.

It will be launched on Saturday 20 April at McGrattan's Cafe-Bar, 76 Fitzwilliam Lane, Baggot St, Dublin 2, with readings and performances from Lordan as well as guest poets and musicians. Start time is 8pm.

can can #4 (the 'from' issue)

Issue 4 of Wurm im Apfel's poezine can can is entirely composed of poems, sequences and - naturally - extracts with titles beginning with the word "from." A strong issue, it includes work by, among others, Sabne Raznik, Christine Murray, Theodoros Chiotis, derek beaulieu, Dave Lordan and Séamas Cain.

Also included is my poem or sequence or (if you like) piece of conceptual nonsense 'From Something to Nothing'. Taking as reference Francis Alÿs' instructions behind one of his actions/performances (Procure yourself a 100 US dollar note, go the the nearest Exchange, change it into Mexican pesos, change it again into US dollars, change it again into Mexican pesos, change it again into US dollars, and so forth, until you are left with nothing) the poem is a record of each of the 29 stages in the process of running the 'about' text from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) website through Google Translate in a sequence of seven European languages, back and forth four times, beginning and ending with English.

can can #4 is now sold out.

wurm decamps

Wurm im Apfel is taking a sabbatical from infecting the Dublin poetry scene with exciting activities. It will be missed. Though I hope its absence here will indeed be temporary, it has issued a threat to turn up somewhere else... Plus there will be new material from Wurm Press in the autumn, while its poezine cancan will continue to emerge "irregularly but regularly". Keep watching that space.

London Student newspaper

London Student, 'Europe's largest independent student newspaper', has published a feature on Wurm im Apfel, where Kit Fryatt talks about Wurm's origins as a reading series and small independent press, about its publications and its plans - as well as the state of non-mainstream poetry in Ireland. "Yes, there is more to Irish poetry than Heaney and bogs and grandmothers' nails," the feature's author comments.

It also includes a short write-up on Spitting Out the Mother Tongue, a sort of first mini-review, in which it is described as "a fantastic book of poetry, with poems about Danielle Steel and Mötley Crüe..." Kit then briefly discusses the collection. 

London Student is published fortnightly and is available free on all college campuses of the University of London.

launch of Spitting Out the Mother Tongue

Wurm Press invites you to the launch of Spitting Out the Mother Tongue 

poems by Christodoulos Makris

The Loft Bookshop 

54 Middle Abbey St 

(upstairs in the Twisted Pepper) 

Dublin 1 

Tuesday 11th October 2011, 8pm 

Guest Speaker: Harry Clifton, Ireland Professor of Poetry

Round the Clock goes Out of Print (and related notes)

Wurm Press has now sold out of the second print run of my chapbook Round the Clock. At the moment we have no plans to re-print. But I still have a handful of copies, each of which can be bought for €4 directly from me at readings, or by post (email me for details).

On a related note, before last Saturday's reading I got my hands for the first time on a sample copy of Spitting Out the Mother Tongue. I'm very pleased with its feel, print quality and overall design. The cover - courtesy of artist Thomas Brezing - looks great. The text has gone through countless editorial probes and there's nothing that can be done about it now... Some tweaking is required relating mostly to typesetting and then it'll be ready to go. The launch is scheduled for 11 October - I'll be posting more details on it nearer the time.

And on a further related note, Wurm im Apfel has started a crowdsourcing funding campaign. Please do consider donating - any amount is welcome (though €5 is the minimum the site will accept). Your contribution will help keep Wurm going: without funding from any official source, it has been presenting by far the most interesting and exciting poetry in Dublin since 2008, both through its reading series (which included the Wurmfest weekend festival in 2009) and its publication programme of chapbooks and full poetry collections. For more information, and to donate, click on the relevant icon on the right. [update 4 Oct 2011: funding target has been gratefully met, icon removed]

Wurm Press poets at the Twisted Pepper

On Saturday 20 August I'll be reading with Cah-44 and Karl Parkinson for a Wurm Press poets showcase hosted by the Seven Towers agency. We'll be at the Where It's At underground bookmarket, housed every Saturday afternoon at the Twisted Pepper building (downstairs in 'The Box'), 54 Middle Abbey Street, Dublin 1. Start time is 3pm, and admission is free.

my new collection now available to pre-order

Spitting Out the Mother Tongue is now available to pre-order from the Wurm Press website for the special pre-publication price of €10 (plus €2 postage to addresses outside Ireland). Publication will be in September, with a launch planned for early October - details nearer the time.

At the moment I'm correcting the proofs. I'm really pleased with how it's coming together - the typography, cover design, overall feel - and excited about bringing out this strand of my work in book form. I can't wait to get my hands on the actual thing!

wurm im bloom

On Thursday 16 June Wurm im Apfel presents a poetry reading with Sophie Mayer and Nina Karacosta. The venue is the Cat and Cage pub (function room), 74 Drumcondra Rd Upper, Dublin 9. 8pm start, free admission.

Sophie Mayer published her first daringly experimental and queer-positive poem when she was 6 years of age. She teaches creative writing at Kings College London and has published extensively on feminism and film. Her new collection is The Private Parts of Girls (Salt, 2011).

Nina Karacosta lives in Paris. Her chapbook Previous Vertigos appeared from Corrupt Press earlier this year.

The performances will be preceded by an antidote-to-Bloomsday workshop (wurmshop). From 6pm. Bring poems to discuss and share. No straw boaters please.

Spinning Cities, by Kimberly Campanello

In Kimberly Campanello's chapbook Spinning Cities (Wurm Press, 2011) shit is the first but not the last word. Its smell wafts through the twelve dystopian poems, which crawl with impurities, decay, cunt, deformity, rape. Animal parts and bodily functions.

These poems take aim - but never cheaply. Restless but clearly thought out and well stitched together, they make it their business to illuminate recesses of the now, in the process establishing unexpected connections. They force the reader's eyes to stay open. And they retain a wide scope, with varying line length and geography that reflect the poet's pool of raw material.

How credible is my endorsement of the work of another Wurm Press poet? Of course I'll support it! But I do so only because Spinning Cities hits the spot consistently. And it works as a unit. Razor-sharp, exhilarating, and revelling in the power of words and their interaction to grapple with things as they are, to shake up and to unsettle, this is compelling and - crucially - necessary poetry.

Wurm im Apfel: rent party

Wurm im Apfel is throwing a rent party to cover costs for its 2011 programme of readings and publications. Proceeds will go towards the funding of performances by Kimberly Campanello, Rachel Lehrman, Gavin Selerie and David Toms - and the forthcoming publication of full-length books by Dave Lordan, Astrid Lampe and myself.

Suggested donation is 10 Euro (alternatives will be accepted...) Those attending are also invited to bring suitably portable works of Dadaist art - or to come dressed as one. There'll be a prize for the best. There will also be a raffle.

Performing on the night will be Enda Reilly, Anne Tannam, Cah-44, Raven, Catspupil, Elder Roche and more.

20% of the proceeds will go to Aware, the mental health charity.

The date is Tuesday 22 March. Start time is 8pm. The venue is the Cat and Cage, 74 Drumcondra Road, Dublin 9 (opposite St Patrick's College).

Subscribe to Wurm...

Kit Fryatt of Wurm im Apfel writes:


Wurm gets no money at all from official sources. Arts Council, Poetry Ireland, nada. They've been generous in the past; I'm grateful. It's a rotten time for arts funding; nobody has it easy. Wurm is a pretty cost-effective operation though -- a couple of hundred euro will keep us going for the rest of the year and into 2011. So here's the deal:

You become a subscriber, a Wurmfreund as it were, and in exchange for 50 euro to those in gainful employment, 20 euro to students & those on fixed or low incomes (no means test) -- you'll get an acknowledgement on the website (undergoing redevelopment as we speak) free copies of Wurm Press publications until 2012, a piece of stylish Wurmwear, and that fuzzy, faintly Medici-ish feeling attendant on becoming a patron of the arts. Donations of any amount can be sent by Paypal to puisingormdana@yahoo.co.uk, or you can register as a Wurmfruend at any Wurm event. Do pass the info on to anyone else you think might be interested.

Here's why you should:

- it's the only regular poetry event in Dublin that makes a point of inviting poets who write in various experimental and modernist-influenced idioms. We're different.
- We're internationalist in outlook
- it's a paying market for poets, and all money goes to poets' fees and costs. There are few enough of these as there is; and funding cuts mean they're getting even rarer
- events are free, and are staying that way
- publications forthcoming include chapbooks by the delightfully up-and-coming Ronan Murphy and the securely established Harry Gilonis. Wurm Press will publish the first English translation of Astrid Lampe's Mosselman Hallo in 2011 (you'll also get Astrid's chapbook bilingual Hello Hallo if you haven't already got it).
- we are of course, not evil... not-for-profit, I mean
- you'll be helping to fund Wurmfest 2.0, Dublin's only modernist poetry festival

Thanks! hope you'll consider it; message or email me if you need any more info: wurmimapfel@gmail.com

Love & verse,

Kit

Wurm Press launch

Wurm Press is launching Antwerp, a full-length collection by Dylan Harris, and Caoimhghin Shea and Various Legends and Lyrics, a chapbook by Kit Fryatt.

Maurice Scully describes the work in Antwerp as "vivacious, energetic poetry that's a shock to the ear and mind, a delight. And funny."

Kit Fryatt is the winner of the 2009 Stinging Fly prize, and has been nominated for the 2010 Forward Prize for an individual poem.

The launch takes place on Thursday 13 May 2010 at The Little Room, 26 Benburb Street, Dublin 7. 8pm start, admission free.


*Update, 10/5/10*

Please note a change in the venue: the launch will now take place at 57 Smithfield Square, Dublin 7 (next to Space 54). Time and date remain as above.

wurmfest

Wurm im Apfel's wurmfest festival takes place over the coming weekend, December 4-6, at 'The Complex' in Dublin's Smithfield Square. This is a great new initiative providing an opportunity to encounter some really exciting poetic voices from across Europe. Programme details are available on the wurmfest website.

Review of 'Round the Clock'

Melissa Lee-Houghton has published a review of my poetry chapbook 'Round the Clock'.

Sound Poetry by Jaap Blonk

Wurm im Apfel and eek art collective present: Sound Poetry by Jaap Blonk.

This celebrated Dutch performer will present his own work and offer a sketch of the history of sound poetry. It's an opportunity to discover more about an interdisciplinary artform and hear a really accomplished and innovative poetry performance.

This event (supported by Poetry Ireland) takes place on Tuesday 7 July at 8pm. The venue is The Sycamore Club in Dublin's Temple Bar. Admission is free.