Christodoulos Makris

I'm very happy to be contributing to the first issue of  CORDA , a new biannual magazine published in London and exploring communal experience of connections in a time of new borders. Started in direct response to the Brexit vote, and edited by Livia Franchini with art direction by Sean P Haughton, CORDA publishes both writing and visual material. My contribution has the title 'tanks rolled through our streets', and it is a borderless mashup of testimonies by young mother refugees to the US and 'below-the-line' commentary on the online article in which they were published. Thanks to Livia Franchini for asking and for publishing this piece, and kudos to Livia and Sean for creating a space for writers & artists across Europe and elsewhere to "grieve/rage/celebrate friendship together in the wake of Brexit". Full list of contributors to CORDA #1 : Cecilia Zoe Grandi, Ginevra Shay, Craig Clark & Caterina Pinzauti, Laura Merizalde & Dizz Tat...

The year has started pretty full on, and this is far from a complaint. Taking advantage of a couple of hours of lull, I've put together this recap with some thoughts on a selection of my recent activities on various fronts (news on publications will follow on separate posts): I'm proud and excited to be working with Ailbhe Darcy and SJ Fowler to bring their collaborative book of poetry  Subcritical Tests , the first title in our emerging  gorse editions , to print. Quite apt since the book has its roots in the collaborative poetry tour Yes But Are We Enemies  from 2014 - the extension of Steven's Enemies Project into Ireland which I produced and co-curated, and for which Ailbhe was one of the core poets. Cover and internal artwork is by the ever-brilliant Niall McCormack; there's also  a short trailer film made by Conor Friel inspired by the material in the book. Preorders and launch details soon. Issue 10 of  gorse  will be a special collectors', comm...

‘Excuse me but I just have to explode this body off me…’ gorse  no. 8  is now out, featuring essays by Alice Butler, Sinéad Gleeson, Diarmuid Hester, Richard Kovitch, and Dimitra Xidous; fiction by Sheila Armstrong, Alex McElroy, Colm O'Shea, David Rose, and Hugh Smith; interviews with Dragana Jurisic (by Orla Fitzpatrick), and Ulay (by Margarita Meklina); Irish by Máirtín Coilféir, Caitríona Ní Chléirchín, and Alan Titley. I'm pleased to be publishing poetry by  Ivy Alvarez in the form of six multifarious poems; 'Aristophanes' People', a sequence by  Kevin Cahill  on gender diversity and the boundaries of the gender construct; three full colour brut art poems by SJ Fowler  exploring handwriting, markmaking, illustration and legibility; and four poems by Melissa Lee-Houghton from a recent body of work. Susan Tomaselli's editorial, taking in among others Claude Cahun, Kathy Acker and Francis Bacon,  is published online , and is accessible w...

Phonica returns with an exciting new partner venue and expanded international dimension! Full details below: Phonica: Five Monday 24 April 2017 7.30pm  Boys School, Smock Alley Theatre Admission: €6.00 / €4.00 with Estevo Creus & Keith Payne Kate Ellis Laura Hyland Anthony Kelly & David Stalling Robert Herbert McClean Ásta Fanney Sigurðardóttir   Phonica: Five  features six exciting acts from Ireland, Spain and Iceland presenting a blend of songwriting and sound improvisation; poetry incorporating architecture and design; ‘musique concrète’; translation; poetry and audiovisual art; cello and electronics; and subversions of the expectations around spoken word performance. Phonica  is a primarily poetry and music series with an emphasis on multiformity and the experimental. Conceived, programmed and hosted since early 2016 by Christodoulos Makris and Olesya Zdorovetska, Phonica aims to explore compositional and performative ideas and to...

I'm happy to note that reviews of my second book The Architecture of Chance keep appearing, more than two years after publication. The most recent, written by Stephanie Koetsier for Dundee University Review of the Arts (DURA) , was part of a series of reviews of books by poets who participated in the 2017 edition of StAnza , Scotland's International Poetry Festival in St Andrews, at the beginning of March. In the review , published just days before the festival, Koetsier calls the collection "unique" and finds that the work in it "challenges the preconceived structures" of poetry. It is "the epitome of the contemporary poet’s working breadth and depth," she writes. My thanks to Stephanie Koetsier and DURA for their interest. * While in St Andrews I spoke to journalist Rebecca Monks for an article about my Digital Residency at StAnza 2017  that she was preparing for Scotland's arts and entertainment magazine thelist.co.uk, and which app...

On Friday 24 March I'll be reading with Aodán McCardle and Suzanne Walsh as part of a gorse showcase reading at Mountains to Sea Book Festival in Dun Laoghaire . The event  is part of the Poetry Now strand of the festival programme, and it is billed as "a sampling of poets working at the boundaries of performance, visual art and poetry whose work has appeared in gorse,  the Dublin-based journal that has quickly established itself as an exciting presence on the European literary scene". It takes place at dlr LexIcon, The Studio  with a start time of 8.30pm. Tickets are €10 / €8 conc . The reading will be followed by a reception marking the publication of  gorse No. 8. Thanks to Alice Lyons, Poetry Now curator at Mountains to Sea, for inviting gorse to be involved in this year's edition. PN2017 boasts an exciting lineup also including readings from Vona Groarke, Paula Meehan, Mairéad Byrne, Matthew Welton, Sarah Howe, Nick Laird, Michael Longley, Fanny Howe, H...

I'm excited to be participating in StAnza 2017 as Digital Poet in Residence. StAnza is Scotland's International Poetry Festival taking place in St Andrews, Fife, each spring. Recognised as one of the leading poetry festivals in Europe, over the years it has featured a strong list of contemporary poets from around the world. This year sees the 20th annual edition, which will run from 1st to 5th March and will feature  an international lineup of over 60 poets, artists and musicians  taking part in around 100 events. The main theme of StAnza 2017 is On The Road , with the festival examining all kinds of travel and journeys. For my residency at StAnza 2017 I have devised a project with title  Browsing History for which I will use simple text and image editing tools to make poetry out of my personal Internet browsing, in real time. The resulting pieces will be erected as physical and subsequently as digital installations, and will cumulatively provide an obliq...

On Thursday 16 February I'll be reading in Nicosia for only the second time, and for the first since 2012 . I'm especially happy that the event is co-organised by two of my favourite organisations/spaces in the town:  Moufflon Bookshop & Neoterismoi Toumazou Art Space . "Neoterismoi Toumazou and Moufflon Bookshop are excited to host Christodoulos Makris for a reading in Cyprus. The poet will present mostly unpublished material from his current work-in-progress. The content of this work is based on anonymous or pseudonymous writing found on the 'bottom half' of the Internet." Details here . Thanks to Ruth Keshishian and Maria Toumazou for making it happen.

‘ Literature is the question minus the answer. ’ gorse No. 7 is now out. Themed around the concept of 'codes', its cover art is as ever by Niall McCormack, and each copy comes with a 'one-time pad' for its decoding. The issue features essays from Scott Esposito, Jonathan Gibbs, John Z Komurki, Shona McCombes, and Pierre Senges (translated by Jacob Siefring); fiction from Chris Beausang, Owen Booth, Celine Fox, Anthony McGuinness, and CD Rose; Irish writing from Colm Breathnach & Liam Mac Cóil; and an interview with Alan Moore by Pádraig Ó Méalóid. I'm very happy to be publishing poetry from Cork-based Sheila Mannix in the form of 'Burning Boat', a long hybrid poem; three new poems, including a triptych, by Michael Naghten Shanks (Dublin); four poems by Brooklyn-based  Chris Campanioni  from his project 'The Internet is for Real'; and four visual erasure poems by  John Rodzvilla (Boston, MA). Susan Tomaselli's editorial 'Falsing...

My limited edition pamphlet if we keep drawing cartoons  was published by If a Leaf Falls Press earlier this month. If a Leaf Falls Press is a micropress run from Edinburgh by Sam Riviere , and publishes poetry with an emphasis on appropriative and arbitrary writing processes. Now in its Second Season, the press has since its inception in 2015 published simple, elegant pamphlets with work by some exciting writers and artists including Emily Berry, Crispin Best, nick-e melville, Maria Fusco, Rachael Allen and Sam Riviere himself. My thanks to Sam for inviting me to join this distinguished list. if we keep drawing cartoons is published in an edition of 36. It comprises ten untitled sections/extracts from the book-length work (in progress) I've been occupied with since mid-2014. As is the case with most of its titles, the press sold out of if we keep drawing cartoons very quickly. If a Leaf Falls Press publications are archived at The Poetry Library London...