Christodoulos Makris

For this event taking place in Nicosia this coming Saturday 26 May, large balloons filled with hundreds of copies of poems by 307 poets from 55 countries - including two of mine - will be placed along Ledra Street and Arasta Sokak to create a 'chain of connection' over the dividing line. The balloons are set to be burst at intervals, releasing the poems to fall 'like rain' on the public. Devised by two cultural organisations operating on either side of the divide, Ideogramma and Sidestreets , and supported by the European Parliament office in Cyprus, Spring Poetry Rain will be broadcast live on the organisers' websites. It starts at 6pm local time (4pm British / Irish time).

A double-spread feature on my work by arts writer Elena Parpa appeared in the culture supplement of Sunday's (20 May) edition of  Φιλελεύθερος  - in terms of circulation Cyprus' largest broadsheet newspaper. With a title loosely translated as 'The Audacity of Poetry' and gleaned in the main out of a long conversation Elena and I had last week, it's a considered and well-researched piece, taking in my writing origins and concerns, my activities and inclinations, and much else, without falling back on cliché or easy conclusions. Our conversation took place in English, but she rendered what we talked about expertly in Greek. It can be viewed online in two separate parts (pages 24 and 25 ). * Also, last Tuesday 15 May - on the morning of my reading at the Home for Cooperation in Nicosia - the Cyprus Mail, the island's main English-language daily paper, published a piece on my work and upcoming participation in Poetry Parnassus. Though welcome, this is (in cont...

Wednesday's (16 May) edition of Εντέχνως, an arts magazine programme broadcast each weekday evening on CyBC TV, featured an interview with me (conducted entirely in Greek, and beginning at around the 7:40 mark) about my work and activities. Remarkably, I didn't slip back into English too often...  

Following the announcement of the line up of the poets that will take part in Poetry Parnassus, the British Council in Cyprus, in association with the University of Cyprus, has invited me to visit the island for a reading in Nicosia and some related activities. It will be a short visit, lasting barely more than 48 hours. The reading will take place at 7.30pm on Tuesday 15 May. The venue is the Home of Cooperation, a "shared space for intercommunal cooperation and dialogue" situated in Nicosia's UN buffer zone. My reading will be preceded by a screening of the short film  Poets in No Man's Land , produced by Stephanos Stephanides of the University of Cyprus and the filmmaker Stephen Nugent, which documents a week-long poetry and translation workshop in Nicosia's 'no man's land'. A whole host of media activities has also been arranged for me, including TV, radio and press interviews, in English and in Greek, as well as possibly a visit north of the d...