Christodoulos Makris

The Poetry Parnassus Postscript: It's Back! To The Future (part of London Lit Festival 13 ) Southbank Centre, Saturday 25 May 2013, 7.45pm BOOK TICKETS HERE After last year's phenomenal Poetry Parnassus festival at Southbank Centre - the biggest ever gathering of world poets - what is left for verse to voice? Plenty say these poets, as they experiment with sound and form, as well as confronting some of the most vexing political questions of the age. Whether working with music, melding language into new shapes or highlighting personal, national and international issues, these poets share the same spirit of adventure. Come and listen to some of the most innovative international voices of today who are not afraid to shake up poetry for the twenty-first century. With:  Dean Atta , Rocío Cerón , Christodoulos Makris , Avaes Mohammad  and Rafeef Ziadah . In association with Speaking Volumes Live Literature Productions.

Next Monday, 20 May, I'll be reading with Rocío Cerón at the Irish Writers' Centre. Rocío Cerón is one of the major Mexican poets and multimedia artists of her generation. Her work engages multiple disciplines, incorporating language, action, video and music to create new spaces for poetry. Here's her June 2011 performance of América at the Pompidou Centre: Over the coming weeks Rocío & I will be performing - separately - at various Poetry Parnassus postscript events around the UK produced by Speaking Volumes Live Literature Productions , our paths converging for an evening at the Southbank Centre (details soon). After she expressed an interest in reading with me in Dublin too, we managed to secure the additional support of the Irish Writers' Centre and  Tabasco 189 Ediciones  to schedule this event at relatively short notice. Many thanks to all. Come along if you can! Admission is free, and we start at 7.30pm.

When : Saturday 27 April 2013, 7pm Where : Council Chambers, Fingal County Hall, Main Street, Swords, Co Dublin Who : Shortlisted poets in the Heart in Mouth audio poetry competition, adjudicated by Colm Keegan and Dave Lordan and supported by Fingal County Council Libraries Department (winner to be announced on the night) plus guests Máighréad Medbh and Christodoulos Makris Admission : free

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 Bo...

Great Poets Steal: a collaborative writing workshop with Christodoulos Makris Blanchardstown Library, Dublin 15 2pm, Saturday 20 April 2013 "The act of choosing and reframing tells us as much about ourselves as a story about our mother’s cancer operation" - Kenneth Goldsmith , 'Uncreative Writing' Its concept stolen from Steven Fowler's Patchwork Renga workshop conducted at the Poetry Library in London last June, and its title from the famous (mis)quote attributed to TS Eliot, this collaborative writing workshop aims to exercise the faculties of selecting and connecting text. My intention is to encourage a lively environment in which participants will work together towards composing a series of poems out of material 'borrowed' from the shelves of Blanchardstown Library. (In the first part all participants will go hunting among the library shelves and steal lines of their choice out of books of their choice from predetermined sections of the libr...

Curated by Annemarie Ni Churreáin, 3X Distilled is part of the Collaborations '13 Festival and will feature unique live performances from three pairs of poets and sound artists: Kit Fryatt & Elizabeth Hilliard Annemarie Ni Churreáin & Ed Devane Christodoulos Makris & Keith Lindsay (Keith & I will be offering a sound treatment of my poem 'From Something to Nothing',  first published in can can #4 .) Join us on Sunday 3 March 2013 in the Boys School at Smock Alley Theatre , 7 Lower Exchange St, Dublin 2. Start time is 8pm and entrance is 5 Euro , with tickets available at the door.

Here's James Wilkes and I performing  'Public-Private Announcements' at Camarade IV last Saturday . The event displayed a wide range of approaches to collaboration, in terms of both composition and performance. It's testament to a spirit of interrogation that currently permeates a particularly innovative strand of the poetry scene in London (extending elsewhere in Britain) - which is being nourished in no small part by Steven Fowler's tireless work and generosity. Footage of all 13 performances is available on Steven's YouTube channel . I particularly enjoyed Peter Jaeger with Tim Atkins, Kirsty Irving with Ryan Van Winkle, and Daniel Rourke with Holly Pester. An anthology collecting the texts from all editions of Camarade is due out later this year.

  For the fourth edition of the Camarade series of collaborations - and the first event in SJ Fowler 's remarkable  Enemies project - James Wilkes and I form one of thirteen pairs of poets who will perform work composed in partnership specifically for this event. Our piece, 'Public-Private Announcements', comprises text- and Twitter-poems exchanged between James and I over the second half of last year. Come listen/see us all at the Rich Mix arts centre , 35-47 Bethnal Green Road, London E1 6LA on Saturday 9 February 2013. Start time is 7pm and admission is free. Full list of pairings: Chris McCabe & Tom Jenks George Szirtes & Carol Watts Peter Jaeger & Tim Atkins James Wilkes & Christodoulos Makris Stephen Emmerson & Lucy Harvest Clarke Alex Niven & Joe Kennedy Roddy Lumsden & Carrie Etter Todd Swift & Paul Perry Marek Kazmierski & Stephen Watts Sophie Mayer & Astrid Alben Holly Pester & Daniel Rourke Kirs...

... are some of the subjects raised in my review of Keith Gaustad's chapbook High Art & Love Poems (Broken Bird Press, 2012) which appears in issue 4 of The Burning Bush 2 . The issue also includes new original work from Dave Lordan, John Sexton, Barbara Smith and many more.

Though I sometimes indulge in them - see below - I’m not a huge fan of end-of-year lists. Some things take longer to sink in and their significance understood than others. I don't just mean the appreciation of volumes of poetry or films or music, but also events in one’s life, writing or otherwise. It’s not always possible to readily ascribe value or meaning to what has been experienced. More to the point, turns of years can operate as welcome breathers and a chance to step back and see the wood instead of constantly just individual trees. Flitting from task to task and from project to project can have the effect of relegating to the backs of our minds what we really are doing it all for. What this writing business is all about. One or two potent disappointments notwithstanding, 2012 was good to me. It's seen a rise in appreciation of what I do; there was a new book, reception of which has been positive; I did many readings and performances, and took part in discussions, pr...