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'this is no longer entertainment' reviewed on PANK Magazine

A review of this is no longer entertainment appeared on PANK Magazine last week, written by Hayden Bergman - poet, translator and Books Editor at The Literary Review.

Founded in 2006 by M. Bartley Seigel and Roxane Gay, PANK Magazine is a US literary magazine "fostering access to innovative poetry and prose, publishing the brightest and most promising writers for the most adventurous readers". It is currently edited by Jessica Fischoff and Chris Campanioni with a remit to "advance the original vision of the founding editors and the rich history that’s published so many innovative voices".

In his review Bergman names some of the subject areas the book covers and writes that "it does so in an acrobatic manner, darting between poetic registers, code-switching from satire to sentiment". He considers it being marked by collisions of ideological extremes, and comments: "Makris writes in a way that takes note of the pleasures and pitfalls of extremes while displaying a wariness of both as he watches dialogue between two sides that are dug in". Further, touching on the globally galvanised Black Lives Matter movement and other 'real life' effects of the online outcry over the video depicting the killing of George Floyd, he suggests that the commentary mode which drives this is no longer entertainment as a documentary poem is or can be "a way of happening". He ends the review by calling the book "a testament to the relationship between poets and physics - as long as there are space and time, the space being physical or cyber, poets will occupy that space, and listen."

The full review can be read on the PANK Magazine website.

To view, listen and read all about this is no longer entertainment, including a range of formal reviews and other responses, go to the book's dedicated page.

Thanks to Hayden Bergman for the review, and to Jessica Fischoff and especially Chris Campanioni for their interest in the book and in my work overall.

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