Christodoulos Makris

I'm very pleased to be partnering with Fingal Libraries, Fingal Arts Office and the official Irish EU Presidency 2026 Cultural Programme ( Cultúr 2026 ) to conceive, programme and host 'The Language Hub: Poetry and Translation' - an activity consisting of four linked sessions with guests from across Europe and from Ireland. The date is Saturday 3 October, and the venue is The Chapel, Swords Castle , in north county Dublin. Full details and booking link below: The Language Hub: Poetry and Translation Saturday 3 October 2026 11am - 4pm The Chapel, Swords Castle, Swords, Co Dublin Free Admission - booking recommended [ BOOK HERE ] As part of Cultúr 2026 - the country-wide cultural programme celebrating Ireland's EU presidency - poet Christodoulos Makris has curated a series of four linked sessions on poetry and translation that explore connectivity through language. Centred on language as a means of connection and cultural exchange, the programme will explore how poetry c...

On Thursday 24 September I will perform Chapter 9 from my ongoing durational project DIAL as part of the programme for the 14th edition of Sardam International Interdisciplinary Literature Festival in Limassol, Cyprus. Scheduled as the opening performance event of this year's festival, DIAL (Chapter 9: September) will also feature sonic interventions from two of my regular collaborators: Joanna Mattrey on viola, and Keith Lindsay on electronics. Our start time is 8pm, and the performance duration will be 60 minutes exactly. The venue is Palio Xydadiko (Old Vinegar Factory)  at Genethliou Mitella 34, Lemesos. Admission is free, but booking is required. Please see the festival website for reservation details. For more about DIAL see here . Our participation in Sardam 2026 is made possible through generous funding support from Culture Ireland - Ireland’s national agency for the promotion of the arts and culture. Sardam (meaning "verbal slip" in Greek) is an annual, o...

Big thanks to everyone who made  the pilot edition of re:verb   such a joyous and remarkable experience: participating poets and artists, design and technical support, venue, bookshop, audience(s). It was a genuine pleasure to organise, programme, direct and host. Wonderful also to see a full or near-full house at all five sessions. An article on Asymptote journal - a leading online platform for international literature and translation - called re:verb "a daring and much needed enterprise" and "a one-of-a-kind literary festival in Ireland (and possibly the world)." I put together a short documentary of re:verb 2026 which I hope captures something of its spirit and vibe. Though you really had to be there. You can view it on YouTube  (with accompanying information and credits) or below.

Earlier this month I contributed a performative paper at the international conference 'Poetry's Environments' organised and hosted by  Poetry@Leeds  at The University of Leeds. The conference took place over three days (9-11 June 2026) at Cloth Court Hall in Leeds city centre and the University of Leeds campus. Convened by a team headed by Kimberly Campanello , Professor of Poetry and Director of Poetry@Leeds,  'Poetry's Environments' aimed to "consider poetry that addresses the natural environment and the environments in which poetry is written, experienced, performed, preserved, and studied" by bringing together "international poets, critics, translators, archivists, activists, textual editors, digital specialists, literary professionals, and individuals, groups and organisations involved in poetry and its environments". My contribution was part of a panel called 'Marks & Materials 1' which also included readings and presentati...

Last summer I travelled to Stuttgart on an invitation from Dr Jessica Bundschuh of the Department of English Literatures and Cultures at The University of Stuttgart, where over Friday 27 and Saturday 28 June 2025 I led a series of generative poetry workshop sessions in partnership with Cork-based poet Molly Twomey for around 60 participants composed of University students and 5th grade students from Dillmann Gymnasium. The title of our collaborative workshop project was 'The Mediated Self' and it consisted of three individually-led sessions each: mine focusing on sampling, collaborative writing, ekphrasis, collaging, and related poetics. My session 'Find a Pop Icon' in particular, spread over two days, was the source of much discussion, amusement, tumult and creative engagement from the students. My reading of the 132-line long collaborative, communal 'exquisite corpse' poem in its entirety, which I set for the class at the outset and which was contributed to b...

On Thursday 28 May I will be at Belfast School of Art in the centre of Belfast where I will deliver a multimedia performance based on my new long poem 'The Ugly Truth'. This performance will take place in the street-facing Glass Box Gallery at 6pm, and it is programmed as part of a two-poet event with title 'Aggregate Inventions', also featuring Máighréad Medbh . Presented by Macha Press in partnership with Belfast School of Art, 'Aggregate Inventions' is a combined experimental poetry/art event commissioned by Natasha Cuddington of Macha Press and  Chérie Driver , Deputy Head of Belfast School of Art, and devised in collaboration between myself and Máighréad Medbh. From the event publicity: Join Máighréad Medbh and Christodoulos Makris for what is sure to be a one-of-a-kind evening of poetry and art performances. ‘The Ugly Truth’, by Christodoulos Makris, is one of four long poems constituting a new book-length work with title nobody is going to be unique : a...

I'm excited to announce that this summer I'm piloting a small festival of contemporary poetry and the verbal arts in Dublin: re:verb  is a platform showcasing poetry and verbal art that predominantly strays from the mainstream, and aims to expand the potential of live literature. Its purpose is to offer an outlet and an encouragement for new forms and approaches to the making and presentation of contemporary poetry and literature that privilege liveness and vibrancy. And as a small poetry/verbal arts festival, re:verb  aims to operate on a model that relies on a communal, artist- and audience-centred stake in its workings. The dates of this year's edition are 5-6 June 2026 . At-a-glance programme information above, with links to tickets, as well as artist details, below. The idea is that, if all goes well and there's demonstrable appetite for it from every direction, re:verb will potentially become an annual fixture. re:verb is, in its current form at least, a zero-bu...

The opening eight pages of my new long poem 'Hallucinations' are featured in the third issue of fallow  (spring 2026). fallow is a biannual journal of literature publishing in Dublin, edited by Ian Maleney and Maija Mäkelä. It is produced by Fallow Media , a literary publisher and digital platform founded by Maleney in 2015 to support and promote adventurous, ambitious work from across the artistic spectrum. It is distinguished by an exploratory, international outlook. (In 2022 Fallow Media produced and released my project  sorry that you were not moved , a longform digital poetry collaboration with Kimberly Campanello, which The Arts Council of Ireland profiled  as a groundbreaking work of digital literature.) fallow 03   also features work from Hélène Bessette (trans. Kate Briggs), François Bonnet (in conversation with Ian Maleney), Mira Mattar, Philippa Snow, Adrian Duncan, Katerina Gogou (trans. Konstantina Georganta), Alice Blackhurst, Charlotte Buckley, a...

After a long gestation period, I'm very pleased to share that issues 12 and 13 of gorse   are now available. gorse No. 12 is predominantly concerned with Language and Translation, and I'm delighted to be including in it poetry from Ray Malone , Silvina Ocampo  in translation by Caitlin Newby , Jérémie C. Wenger , Sujatha Menon , Martin Jackson , and Ghazal Mosadeq . Some of these poets have been waiting a long time for the release of the issue featuring their work, and I thank them particularly for their patience. Issue 13 is themed around the notion(s) of Taboo, with poetry contributions from Michael Chang , Viviana Fiorentino , Will Fleming ,  Özgecan Kesici-Ayoubi , and Lianne O'Hara . The issue also features prose contributions from several poets. These latest issues are currently available to order from selected bookshops ; they will also be available to purchase directly from the gorse shop soon, pending a website update. As ever, I'm grateful to all the above...

This spring I will lead an 8-week course with title 'writing as a reader / reading as a writer.' The course is offered as part of the Irish Writers Centre Academy 's Spring 2026 programme. This is an online course. Beginning on Thursday 5 March 2026, it will run weekly between 6.30pm - 8.30pm Dublin time. Limited spaces available. Book your place here . Full course information on the IWC website , and below. Course Summary: As poets and writers we are first and foremost readers mediating external material, text and otherwise, in the process of making new work. And as readers operating in the digital age we are increasingly aware of the creative potential of reading and repurposing. In ‘writing as a reader / reading as a writer’ participants will exercise their capacity to read creatively, critically and intuitively, and to employ source material directly towards literary composition. This is a generative course incorporating regular writing tasks underpinned by carefully se...