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Poetry Wales 59.2 (Winter 2023)

I'm very happy that two poems from my book Contemporaneous Brand Strategy Document appear in the Winter 2023 issue of Poetry Wales. And I'm particularly pleased that an abridged version of a new essay of mine with title 'Just Your Imagination: The Case of the Absent Elusive Irish Avant-Garde' is also published in the issue.

Founded in 1965 and currently edited by Zoë Brigley, Poetry Wales is the national poetry magazine of Wales. It publishes contemporary poetry, features and reviews in its triannual print and digital magazine, and maintains an interest in translation and in local and national identities in a global context. Poetry Wales is open to tradition and experiment, publishing poetry from a wide range of approaches.

My poems 'the stooges' and 'ruthlessly', taken from Contemporaneous Brand Strategy Document (Veer, 2023), are among new poetry by over 40 poets from across the world printed in the issue.

And among its features Poetry Wales 59.2 includes an abridged version of my essay 'Just Your Imagination: The Case of the Absent Elusive Irish Avant-Garde'. Brigley writes in her editorial: "Back in issue 57.1, Kris Paul wrote an article on Welsh experimental writing, a theme important to us at Poetry Wales. An article by Christodoulos Makris follows up on innovative poetry, with an article on the avant-garde in Ireland, which could provide food for comparisons regarding what has happened and is happening in Wales."

The full essay was commissioned as a 6,000-word chapter for the forthcoming Bloomsbury Companion to Contemporary Poetry in Ireland and The UK, with a publication date to be confirmed. Taking as its starting point composer Jennifer Walshe's 'Aisteach' project, it explores the potential existence, sites and form(s) of an avant-garde in poetry of/from Ireland - indeed whether such a thing even exists. The version in Poetry Wales runs to just over 3,000 words and omits the foundational reference to Walshe's project, directing its focus on a range of specific instances of poetry of/from Ireland that exist on the page and/or beyond, as a vehicle towards recognising "the imaginary or absent, or maybe more accurately elusive, Irish poetic avant garde as a messy conglomeration of threads, initiatives, projects and activities that sometimes interact but which don't necessarily fit together as a unified scene."

My thanks to Zoë Brigley for the invitation to contribute to Poetry Wales. Issue 59.2 can be ordered on the magazine's website, with subscriptions also available.

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