A Whole New Way of Seeing Annexe – Site Change

The time has finally come. We’re officially going to stop using the WordPress site as of today. We’ve set up a new subscribing/newsletter button over on the new site so you don’t have to miss out on getting our writing straight to your inbox. Head over to our flashy new Annexe site and on every page under the magazine tab, there’s a little form on the right for you to put in your email.

We’ve upgraded our output too, so instead of getting all the articles as and when they are posted, we’ll be sending out a properly drafted newsletter every fortnight with the latest articles linked and a few extra bits that we think you’d like to hear about.

A massive thank you to everyone who has been reading since the beginning, you’ve helped make Annexe what it is. Now come with us to the next step and enjoy our site in all it’s swanky glory.

 

– Nick & the Annexe Team

Advertisement

Event – Words on Cities – Iain Sinclair, Tom Chivers, Katy Darby and Clare Fisher

We’re proud to announce that our next event will be at the end of this month. A night all about the city. Read all about it further down, and then come along, why don’t you!

The cityscape has long been an influence on modern writing. As a setting, a starting point or even a medium, the urban landscape draws a particular kind of creation from writers.

Annexe has brought together four of the finest writers working with the urban condition for an evening of talks and performances that display their hugely varied takes on the city.

Words on Cities – Iain Sinclair, Tom Chivers, Katy Darby, Clare Fisher
Thursday 25th April || 7.30pm
£7 (buy tickets here)
Toynbee Studios
28 Commercial St
E1 6AB

–

On the bill we have:

With a long-standing history of poetry and prose, Iain Sinclair is sits at the leading-edge for writing that deciphers the hidden aspects and connections of London. His work has reinvigorated the call for psychogeographical exploration across the globe. For Words on Cities, Sinclair will present a talk based around his forthcoming book American Smoke: Journeys to the End of the Night. When Iain Sinclair was first setting out, it was mainly American writers that influenced him, but he never visited the USA. Locked down in Hackney, the transatlantic mass was as unreal as Kafka’s ‘Amerika’.

Tom Chivers is a poet and editor residing in London. His recent work, with the Cape Farewell project, has led Tom to investigate the changing landscape of London and unearth an urban geography that has been covered by the constant growth and renewal of the capital city. His talk will focus on his practice of ‘psychogeology’ and his migration through the lost rivers of London.

Katy Darby is a writer, an editor, a teacher and the founder of the incredible storytelling night Liars League. Katy will be reading a selection of her prose work based around London.

Clare Fisher’s current project The City in my Head is an exploration of London through fiction. Each story shows a snapshot of a particular area, constructed from human experience. Claire will be reading a selection of works from the collection.

Ta Da! Our new site is unveiled!

Today we finally pulled the cover of our brand new site! All singing, all dancing. New and improved. Better than ever.

 

WordPress has been a wonderful home to us for over a year and a half now. It’s straightforward layout has been a joy to work with, but now we’ve decided we want to cut the .wordpress. from our name and exist on our own two feet at http://www.annexemagazine.com. Like a bird flying from the nest (actually more like a teenager leaving home, because we’re still utilising the WordPress CMS in true semi-independent fashion) we will be posting primarily to our dedicated domain. It all looks quite fancy over there too! The layout is updated, though not too distanced from the look you’re used to. Head on over and have a look. If you spot anything that needs changing, drop us a line and we’ll thank you for your vigilance.

If you’re subscribed to us via WordPress, not to worry. We’ll post duplicate articles here until we’ve found a suitable replacement for the subscription system.

Without further ado, I declare the new Annexe Magazine site OPEN! 

Review – The Mussel Feast

The Mussel Feast by Birgit Vanderbeke
trans. Jamie Bulloch
Review by Alex Mee

I studied chemistry for a while, the subject that I imagined would most quickly lead me into mad science and thence world domination and battles of wit with an alcoholic misogynist in a nice suit. One element of the syllabus that was extremely perplexing, which has stuck with me longer than any of the information that my teacher’s tried to impart, was the beneficial untruth. Every time I leveled up, from GCSE to As and then A Level, it was revealed that everything that I had been told up until this point was simply a useful but utterly inaccurate approximation of reality. Remember how we convinced you that the electrons were little balls that shot around the nucleus, how we made you draw that innumerable times and then you took an exam that tested your knowledge of those little balls? Well you can forget it now.

“Print is dead! Long live print!” – A note on the present of print

It seems that finally the furore about the ‘death of print’ is dying down. Mainly because print did no such thing. The phrase ‘death of print’ is reminiscent of swashbuckling period movies in which a rabble of sooty-looking peasants or beruffled aristocrats yell “the king is dead”. All well and good. A simple sentence with a definite meaning. Almost immediately they’d drop “long live the king” as well. Instantly everything has changed. There’s a king, so the idea of ‘king’ is still there (a constant if you will) but the body that constitutes king is entirely different. This is exactly what is going on with print. Print publishing as a concept is very much here. The reality that constitutes print publishing is becoming a whole new world.

Review: Blood Fugue by Joseph D’Lacey

Alexander Mee was less than satisfied by Proxima’s latest offering, Blood Fugue. A sexed up vamp horror with all the subtlety of gravel. 

Eros and Thanatos, or Desire and Death. These are the drives that Freud believed acted within and amongst humans to motivate our heinous and holy intents as well as our internal conflicts. They are also key to understanding Horror as a genre, which plays on both at the same time. Dracula is a great example of this, the Count is a player but I’d want stake him for coming near my loved ones. Frankenstein’s monster is another, it seeks love but is doomed to destroy. Their journeys may be odysseys of furious savagery, but they are enthralling to read, and their downfalls bittersweet.

Book Burning in the Digital Age and the art of Antonio Riello

The image of book burning goes hand in hand with images of violent suppression. The responses are equally strong; violent protests broke out  in 2011 after a lone fanatical preacher burnt 20 copies of the Koran in Florida. Biblioclasm can have a deeply political impact, but what significance does it have in our digital world?

Review: Veronica Britton: Chronic Detective – N.P. Boyce

It took me many years to learn patience. Despite my decidedly calm current demeanour, I definitely had a temper-dappled childhood. One such instance, or series of instances as I never learned, was my relationship with Where’s Wally. These densely packed and intricately drawn megapictures were a constant torment for my prepubescent self. What should have been a simple activity, that of locating the titular striped nomad, became an exercise in frustration. This was not because I couldn’t locate Wally, but because I would stumble upon so many other characters and situations that were infinitely more interesting. Why should I bother with a bobble-hatted tourist when there’s a wizard bouncing on a trampoline – oh wait what’s that? An alien with a – and that – and that – and that!?

My childhood self was dissatisfied with the task given to him when there countless other astonishing stories I would rather follow. I realise now that I was probably overstimulated and overtired. Regardless, it was an issue I felt strongly about. This is the very same hang-up I have with Veronica Britton: Chronic Detective. There is just so much going on!

The Late Review

We’re starting a new series here at Annexe. It is based on the book you love. Yes,  you. Out there. Reading this. Not just you either. It’s about all the books we love. Do you have a book that you pick up and revisit every so often? A classic that always comes to mind? We’d like you to share it with us and the world. 

The Late Review is exactly that. A review of a book, not necessarily new (in fact probably not new) that really speaks to you. All it has to be is a couple of sentences on what the book is about and why you love it so much.

If you’d like to be one of our first reviewers, either drop us an email OR (far better) come along to our spoken word festival INTERROBANG on Saturday! The Annexe team will be flitting about with recorders ready to capture your review in crystal clear sound. If it’s not an awkwardly huge one, bring the book along as well. We’d love to get a snap of you holding it to accompany the review. Of course, there are Annexe gifts awaiting anyone who becomes a reviewer!

_______________________________________________________

Interrobang Festival is on Saturday 17th November at The Betsey Trotwood.
It’s all day (12pm-12am) and is a bargain at £6 so come along and enjoy the multitude of amazing acts.

Highlights of the Impending Interrobang Part 2

Continuing with the highlights of our upcoming super-celebration of stories here’s another handful of incredible acts you can look forward to. Off we go!