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

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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

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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! 

In Pictures – Cass & Penguin: Design Your Own Book Cover

The blank ‘Design Your Own Cover’ editions from Penguin are certainly not new. (They brought out the first six titles in 2006.) However, it seems like the partnership with Cass Art is much newer indeed and they certainly missed a trick by not making this connection back then!
Cass, in partnership with Penguin, are running weekend workshops (for kids and adults alike) in which you can take and design a book cover in-store absolutely free. We went along to flex our arty muscles.

The Lost Art of the Letterpress

As it may have been mentioned in a previous post, I have been loudly singing the praises of block printing in the Annexe HQ recently. The art of the printing press has been a long standing love of mine and any chance to share it is readily  jumped upon.

Now, while I could bore you batty with an intricate history of printing through the ages, the main reason for this article (and the reason I’ve become a source of annoyance in the HQ) is the discovery of a collection of artists working with block printing today. Are you sitting comfortably, then let’s begin.

An Interview with Hamish MacDonald (also a brief review of his book The Willies)

Today we have a feature on Canadian born, British based author Hamish MacDonald.

MacDonald is a champion of self-publishing. He writes, typesets, prints, binds and publishing his work singlehandedly. No mean feat by any stretch, but an astounding skill given the sheer magnitude of the work he puts out. I stumbled upon his books at the Alternative Press Fair this year. Nestled in amongst the zines and prints on show that day (beautiful pieces in themselves, but nowhere in the same league) MacDonald was presenting his novels. The massive benefit of the self publishing trade, for the potential reader at least was that I had the chance to speak with MacDonald about his books and after a lovely chat about the whole writing and binding process I bought a copy of The Willies. Set in the near future, The Willies starts out as clever speculative fiction set in a world where bioengineering is at its peak, animals are created in labs and the prospect of creating humans is a very real possibility. Ethical and moral conflicts run rampant. Within the first thirty odd pages, the action (quite literally) explodes and what ensues is a fast paced romp through espionage drama, survival thriller and existential crisis. While that would be too much for most other writers, MacDonald easily turns the multitude of angles into one tidy story that draws the reader through to the climax with no hint of drag or filler.

Recently I caught up with Hamish and asked him a few questions about his writing. Read the interview after the jump.