Christodoulos Makris

Issue 32 Vol 2 (Winter 2015-16) of The Stinging Fly magazine is particularly strong on poetry, having enlisted the services of Billy Ramsell as guest poetry editor. A selection of poets with work in the issue were commissioned to write short additional pieces (souterrains) functioning as "archaeological features" existing "somehow under" the poems. Also included are poetry-related essays and an interview, as well as the usual 'featured poet' slot which in this issue goes to Elaine Cosgrove. In the reviews section, Alan Jude Moore casts an eye on The Penguin Book of Russian Poetry - while Stephen Connolly reviews Miriam Gamble's Pirate Music  alongside my latest book  The Architecture of Chance . Among much else, Connolly writes of The Architecture of Chance  that its "focus on composition moves towards explaining the book's title, its paradoxical concerns with orchestrating multiple possibilities," and that "life in a late-capita

Osmosis   is a visual art exhibition at  Filmbase  in Dublin's Temple Bar in which selected artists explore perceptions of memory and identity through small concept-driven objects. Curated by Debbie Paul of the Debbie Paul Gallery , the exhibition is part of 'View - Temple Bar Arts and Politics Weekend', a festival run by the Temple Bar Company to mark the 25th anniversary of the redevelopment of the area. I'm contributing to Osmosis  with 'A Social Osmosis Intimated (Life Goes On)', a new commissioned piece written as a creative response to ideas, concepts and processes in the work shown in the exhibition. It will be available during the exhibition - and will also serve as an introduction to a subsequent publication from  Chrome Yellow Books . Also printed will be short essays by the four participating artists: 'Beauty in Mindfulness' by Sam Tho Duong; 'Meaning and Memories' by Mirei Takeuchi; 'Identity' by Eunmi Chun; and 'Capturi

On Friday 20 November I'll be taking part in The European Camarade at the Free Word Centre in London, with a new collaboration with poet and literary scientist Michal Habaj. Curated by Steven Fowler and supported by many cultural organisations (including Literárne informačné centrum Slovakia, European Union National Institutes for Culture - London, The European Literature Network, and the Embassy of the Slovak Republic among others) The European Camarade is a mini-festival of European poetry in collaboration, featuring eighteen poets from across the continent presenting brand new collaborative work rooted in 21st century poetic practice. The event will be introduced by Rosie Goldsmith of the European Literature Network. Full lineup: Michal Habaj (Slovakia) & Christodoulos Makris (Ireland / Cyprus) Katarina Kucbelova (Slovakia) & Karen McCarthy Woolf (UK) Gabriele Labanauskaite (Lithuania) & Camilla Nelson (UK) Luke Allan (UK) & Christoph Szalay (Austria)