The Architecture of Chance on 'Books of the Year' lists

It's fortifying as well as really pleasing to see that The Architecture of Chance has found its way onto a couple of separate and quite different 'Books of the Year' lists:

In his post 'Top Reads of 2015' on 3:AM Magazine - something of an annual tradition among the magazine's editors - SJ Fowler includes the book in wonderful company, describing it as "the future of a poetry which reflects our world of language without dispensing with the expressionistic skill of interpreting that language".

And on the 14 December edition of RTÉ Radio's flagship arts programme Arena, Dave Lordan named it as one of five 'Favourite Poetry Books of the Year' from Ireland, commenting: "a very refreshing use of material found on the internet, of signage found around the city ... to shape into poems which make us wonder: is it us that speak words, or is it words that speak us?" The relevant section is available to listen back on the Arena website.

Incidentally, here's my own favourite reads of the past year:

My favourite reads in 2015 @viv_albertine Maurice Scully @Oniropolis @stevenjfowler @borispasterlike @HUObrist pic.twitter.com/BPMpwVX7qR

— Christodoulos Makris (@c_makris) December 28, 2015

RTÉ Poetry Programme

I recently discussed my book The Architecture of Chance and themes & ideas connected to it with presenter Rick O'Shea for the RTÉ Poetry Programme - a half hour show dedicated to contemporary poetry broadcast weekly on Ireland's national radio channel - reading some pieces from it in the process. Of particular interest to Rick was 'Chances Are' as an ever-moving, mass-collaboration poem that anyone can contribute to, wittingly or not, and its appearance in the book as HTML code.

We have @c_makris on the show. Send a tweet with the word "chance" in it and then go here: https://t.co/Q3FOrUfNF0 pic.twitter.com/EJcSL904qk

— RTÉ Poetry Programme (@PoetryProgRTE) December 10, 2015

The interview was broadcast on last Saturday's (12 December) edition, which can be played back via the programme's page on the RTÉ website (my section starts around the 9:30 mark). Also featured on the same show were Eleanor Hooker and Moya Cannon; there was also a report on the annual Poetry Aloud competition.

My thanks to Rick O'Shea, producer Claire Cunningham, and everyone working on the programme for their attention to the book.

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.

The Architecture of Chance reviewed in The Stinging Fly

Issue 32 Vol 2 (Winter 2015-16) of The Stinging Fly magazine is particularly strong on poetry, having enlisted the services of Billy Ramsell as guest poetry editor. A selection of poets with work in the issue were commissioned to write short additional pieces (souterrains) functioning as "archaeological features" existing "somehow under" the poems. Also included are poetry-related essays and an interview, as well as the usual 'featured poet' slot which in this issue goes to Elaine Cosgrove.

In the reviews section, Alan Jude Moore casts an eye on The Penguin Book of Russian Poetry - while Stephen Connolly reviews Miriam Gamble's Pirate Music alongside my latest book The Architecture of Chance. Among much else, Connolly writes of The Architecture of Chance that its "focus on composition moves towards explaining the book's title, its paradoxical concerns with orchestrating multiple possibilities," and that "life in a late-capitalist society is interrogated throughout." He quotes from my recent essay in Poetry Ireland's literary pamphlet Trumpet as an aid towards interpreting the work in what is an appreciative discussion of the book and its intentions.

My thanks to Billy Ramsell and to The Stinging Fly for their attention, and to Stephen Connolly for his dedicated reading. Though unfortunately my name is misspelled throughout the issue...

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.

The European Camarade

On Friday 20 November I'll be taking part in The European Camarade at the Free Word Centre in London, with a new collaboration with poet and literary scientist Michal Habaj.

Curated by Steven Fowler and supported by many cultural organisations (including Literárne informačné centrum Slovakia, European Union National Institutes for Culture - London, The European Literature Network, and the Embassy of the Slovak Republic among others) The European Camarade is a mini-festival of European poetry in collaboration, featuring eighteen poets from across the continent presenting brand new collaborative work rooted in 21st century poetic practice.

The event will be introduced by Rosie Goldsmith of the European Literature Network.

Full lineup:

Michal Habaj (Slovakia) & Christodoulos Makris (Ireland / Cyprus)
Katarina Kucbelova (Slovakia) & Karen McCarthy Woolf (UK)
Gabriele Labanauskaite (Lithuania) & Camilla Nelson (UK)
Luke Allan (UK) & Christoph Szalay (Austria)
Valgerður Þóroddsdóttir (Iceland) & Richard Scott (UK)
Endre Ruset (Norway) & SJ Fowler (UK)
Ville Hytonen (Finland) & Colin Herd (Scotland)
Kinga Toth (Hungary) & Kim Campanello (US)
Erlend O. Nødtved (Norway) & Christopher Stephenson (UK)

Venue: Free Word Centre, 60 Farringdon Rd, London EC1R 3GA
Doors: 7pm
Entrance: Free (please book through the Free Word Centre website)

Review of The Architecture of Chance on The Bogman's Cannon

A generous review of my book The Architecture of Chance appeared last week on The Bogman's Cannon - an independent hub of literature and opinion pioneered by Dave Lordan and facilitated by a network of editors including the reviewer, Joe Horgan.

Horgan's reading of the book begins with an architectural/city planning definition of the term 'desire paths' and leads to the view that "[Christodoulos Makris] has gone in to the city and carved out a series of desire paths that make this idiosyncratic collection a hugely refreshing work." He deems the work in it to be "wonderfully breaking free of the Irish tradition" and states among other things that "Makris ... treats the reader with the intelligence they deserve ... as he pins together the flotsam and jetsam of modern, urban life" and that the book "is one of the most interesting Irish collections I have come across in a long time."

Horgan reviews The Architecture of Chance alongside a pamphlet by Erin Fornoff, noting the incidence of "voices ... originating elsewhere but distilled here" and finding them "most cheering." My thanks to him for the attention to the book, and to The Bogman's Cannon for the interest in and support of my work.

gorse No. 4

Issue 4 of gorse is now out and available to buy directly from the website, where you can also purchase a subscription, or from selected bookshops. I'm proud and excited to be publishing in it new poetry from Philip Terry, Robert Herbert McClean, Kimberly Campanello and Patrick Chapman.

Philip Terry contributes a long prose poem with title 'Bird Notes'; Robert Herbert McClean's 'Excerpt from Pangs!' is six extracts from his eponymous debut collection just out from Test Centre; Kimberly Campanello's three visual poems are taken from MOTHERBABYHOME forthcoming from zimZalla in 2016; and Patrick Chapman's 14-part sequence 'The Film of My Death' channels Alfred Hitchcock and Paris - his seventh book of poetry Slow Clocks of Decay is due out from Salmon next year.

gorse No. 4 also features fiction by Adrian Duncan, Paul Kavanagh, Thomas McNally, Hugh Fulham-McQuillan, Ian Parkinson, Pierre Senges (in translation by Jacob Siefring), and Jona Xhepa; essays by Alice Butler, Daniella Cascella, Dominique Cleary, Orla Fitzpatrick, Christopher Higgs, Barry Sheils, Suzanne Walsh and Adrian Nathan West; and two interviews: Luis Chitarroni by Andrew Gallix, and Lee Rourke by Liam Jones. Susan Tomaselli's editorial, 'Wonder is Really Nothing', takes Alice in Wonderland and dream-writing as its starting point and follows it down the rabbit hole to find Joyce, Duchamp, Burroughs & Gysin, Švankmajer, Hitchcock and much more. The cover design, as ever, is from Niall McCormack. The first 150 copies are individually numbered.

We will be celebrating the launch of gorse No. 4 at The Liquor Rooms, Wellington Quay, Dublin 2, at 7pm on Wednesday 21 October 2015, with readings from the issue by Dominque Cleary, Orla Fitzpatrick, Suzanne Walsh, Jona Xhepa & more, plus music by Gar Cox. Join us.

collaboration event at Poets Live, Paris

On Tuesday 6 October I'll be returning to Poets Live, the excellent reading series presenting anglophone poetry to Paris audiences, to perform from my 3-year long and ongoing collaboration with Kimberly Campanello.

Beginning with the material we prepared for the 2013 edition of Camaradefest at the recently-reprieved Rich Mix arts centre, Kimberly and I have been conducting a correspondence through poems sent by snail-mail from and to various locations, our conversation revolving around items intended for public exhibition.

In addition to our collaboration we will also read from our own work.

The current Poets Live venue is Berkeley Books of Paris, 8 rue Casimir Delavigne, 75006 Paris (Métro: Odéon) and start time is 7.30pm. Admission is free.

Earlier this year I provided an introduction to Kimberly's work for her entry on the Irish section of Poetry International.

psí víno magazine

My long poem 'Prime Time' from The Architecture of Chance was published in issue 72 of Prague's psí víno magazine, in a Czech translation by David Koranda.

psí víno is a quarterly journal of poetry and criticism founded in 1997. Its current editors "strive to confront Czech literary scene with the current trends from abroad (especially from the English speaking countries, Central, Eastern, and Southern Europe, and Scandinavia), and to give voice to the contemporary phenomena at the edges of literature (experimental literature, digital literature, uncreative writing, text art etc)."

'Prime Time' is the record of my live transcription of all advertising broadcast on Ireland's state TV channel RTÉ1 on Friday 28 February 2014 between 6pm and 11pm. David translated the resulting text into Czech, and performed it with me at the Prague Microfestival in May.

A taster of the issue - also featuring work by Petr Borkovec, Frank Smith, Juliana Spahr and Rike Scheffler, as well as Charles Reznikoff, among others - is available on ISSUU.

Ways of Writing: essay in Trumpet 4

My essay encompassing a discussion of the cross-stream: ways of writing project within a larger discussion of my curatorial activities and compositional interests appears in the latest issue of Trumpet, Poetry Ireland's quarterly pamphlet of poetry, reviews and essays. Future issues of Trumpet will include articles by poets who participated in cross-stream based on their presentations for the project.

My thanks to Poetry Ireland's Paul Lenehan for his interest. Issue 4 of Trumpet also features reviews of new books by Dylan Brennan, Angela Carr and Victoria Kennefick among others, as well as poems by Kim Moore, Ailbhe Ní Ghearbhuigh and more.

Trumpet costs €2.00 per issue and is available individually from bookshops or directly from Poetry Ireland through subscription.

Caves, Bears & Pages at The Ink Factory

Cave Writings in partnership with The Bohemyth and Belleville Park Pages are hosting an event they call "possibly the most impressive celebration of contemporary writing in Ireland this year". Taking place at The Ink Factory in Dublin (15 Wellington Quay, D2) on Tuesday 9 June, 'Caves, Bears and Pages' will feature readings from 12 writers selected between the three hosts. I'm very happy to have been invited by The Pages to take part, and I look forward to reading alongside some exciting people like Ronan Murphy and Dimitra Xidous. This is a free event, with a start time of 8.30pm. BYOB.

'Remaking it New' at Writers' Week, Listowel

Remaking it New: a discussion in association with gorse literary journal
part of Listowel Writers' Week 2015


gorse identifies with the 'golden age' of literary Irish publishing, but the journal is not nostalgic for the past. Rather it is excited by what's happening in the here, the now and the future of writing. Inspiration comes from multifarious sources - the internet, Twitter, translation, the self - and this event, an inclusive and lively discussion interspersed with readings and with scope for audience participation, will showcase some of these ideas through writers associated with gorse and whose work blurs the lines between genres.

Featuring essayist and novelist Rob Doyle (Here Are the Young Men), writer and illustrator Joanna Walsh (Dalkey Archive's Best European Fiction, #ReadWomen2014), poet and gorse poetry editor Christodoulos Makris (Yes But Are We Enemies, The Architecture of Chance).

Presented and moderated by gorse founder and editor Susan Tomaselli.

Date: Friday 29th May 2015
Time: 2pm
Admission: Full €10  Concession: €8 (Book Here)
Venue: Listowel Arms Ballroom, The Arms Hotel, Listowel, Co Kerry

Prague Microfestival 2015

I'm excited to be taking part in this year's (7th) edition of the Prague Microfestival, an international festival of innovative, intermedia and translocal poetry, taking place 18-20 May 2015:

"PMF’s aim is twofold: to invigorate the Czech literary scene with up-to-date creative impulses from abroad (so far, those have been linguistically experimental poetry, intermedia writing, conceptual poetry, poetry performance and poetry collective) and to put Prague back on the map of global avant-garde capitals." Read more about the festival, including its history, here.

I'll be taking part in two events, both on Tuesday 19 May:

1/ Being Translocal: Writing In-Between Spaces (tranzitdisplay, entry free / vstupné zdarma, language / jazyk: ENG): The writers Louis Armand (Prague), Christodoulos Makris (Dublin), Philip Hammial (Sydney) and Donna Stonecipher (Berlin) discuss writing in-between the national literatures, i.e. writing as a translocal writer. Moderated by David Vichnar and Olga Pek.
Start time: 16.00

2/ Conceptual Music and Text Night (Theatre NOD, entry 80 Kč, language: CZ & ENG): The second PMF night will start off with the Australian avant-gardist Philip Hammial and a reading incorporating a live mass-collaboration Twitter poem by the Ireland-based Cypriot Christodoulos Makris. The second half of the evening comprises a unique series of verbal compositions, classical singing and experimental music by Samuel Vriezen from Netherlands and Ian Mikyska from Prague, two composers who will be accompanied by the improvisation collective Startocluster. The composition "A House for Hanne Darboven," with text by Louis Armand, will be performed as a homage to the German conceptual artist. The night wraps up with indie-folk by TEVE.
Start time: 19.00

The full programme and accompanying events include some amazing writers and artists from Europe and beyond. Massive thanks to festival director Olga Pek for the invitation, and to her organising team. Thanks also to the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade for supporting my participation.

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.

Interview on The Literateur

In advance of my participation in Prague Microfestival 2015 later this month (details soon) I was interviewed by Martin Šinal for The Literateur.

The Literateur is "an online literary magazine featuring interviews with luminaries of the literary world, articles, reviews and exciting new creative works." Previous interview subjects include Eimear McBride & Lee Rourke, Rachel Kushner, Deborah Levy, Keston Sutherland and Zadie Smith among others.

Martin's well-researched and probing questions allowed me to expand on many aspects of my practice, and elicited my thoughts on various subjects including conceptualism, intermedia and translocal writing, and the function of contemporary poetry.

European Literature Night 2015: In Spoken Word

I'll be reading at this event, part of the London edition of European Literature Night 2015, taking place in the British Library on Wednesday 13 May. With thanks to all organising partners, especially Speaking Volumes Live Literature Productions and the Cyprus High Commission in London.

European Literature Night 2015:
In Spoken Word

Hosted by Ava Vidal with Baloji, Xavier Baumaxa, Christodoulos Makris, Joelle Taylor and Kārlis Vērdiņš

In the British Library, Entrance Hall

On Wednesday 13 May 2015 from 19.00-20.30

Telling the stories of the continent through the universal rhythm of poetry, a host of Europe’s most vibrant poets and spoken word artists gather together for one night only to share their work. Wide-ranging in theme and style, criss-crossing the local and the global, the personal and the public, there is something for everyone to enjoy, as well as the underlying music of the words which connects us all.

13 May 2015, 19:00 - 20:45
Entrance Hall
The British Library
96 Euston Road
London
NW1 2DB

Tickets: £10.00 / £8.00 / £7.00 - Book Here

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

gorse No. 3

Issue 3 of gorse, edited by Susan Tomaselli [my editorial contribution begins from No. 4, due out in September] and with cover art once again by Niall McCormack, is now out. Copies can be ordered directly, while the journal is also available through selected bookshops.

The issue will be launched on Wednesday 15 April at The Workman's Club (The Vintage Room), 18 Wellington Quay, Dublin 2, with readings from Cal Doyle, Darragh McCausland, Paula McGrath and Michael Naghten Shanks.

Below is the full list of contents - with links to selected previews:


[Editorial]
Whale in the Moon When It’s Clear

[Interview]
‘At Home in the Unheimlich,’ Deborah Levy by Andrew Gallix

[Essays]
‘Initiations: On Grisey’s Music’ by Liam Cagney
‘A Writer’s Guide to the Dialectical Landscapes of Dublin’ by Therese Cox
‘Four Bridges/Four Exercises in Re-Construction’ by Adrian Duncan
‘A Fine House, The Irish Their Bungalows’ by Oliver Farry
‘Stasis’ by Ian Maleney
‘The Cardinal & the Corpse, A Flanntasy in Several Parts’ by Pádraig Ó Meálóid
‘Father of the Man, Terence Davies’ Trilogy‘ by Bobby Seal
‘The Eye & the Word’ by Joanna Walsh

[Fiction]
‘ten thousand tiny spots’ by Sheila Armstrong
‘April Truth’ by Ilya Zverev, translated by Anna Aslanyan
‘The Belly of the Whale, A Captain Ruggles Novelette’ by Adam Biles
‘Limbed’ by David Hayden
‘Medicine’ by Darragh McCausland
‘Selfie’ by Paula McGrath

[Poetry]
‘Two Poems’ by Thomas Bernhard, Friedrich Hölderlin, translated by Will Stone
‘Subcritical Tests’ by Ailbhe Darcy & S.J. Fowler
‘Three Poems’ by Cal Doyle
‘Five Poems’ by Michael Naghten Shanks
‘Five Poems’ by Georg Trakl, translated by Will Stone

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