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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Review: Flying into the Bear – Chrissy Williams

[Remember, delicious reader, the wordpress is now a secondary source for all things Annexe. The first port of call for all Annexe material is http://www.annexemagazine.com ]

A few years ago, the Norwegian electronic duo Röyksopp released two paired albums. One was Junior, a bouncy light-hearted romp through party pop. The other was Senior, a more introverted and complex record. Interesting to hear, but ultimately less hooky. Fans of the duo vow to love both albums equally, but secretly they all prefer Junior. The immediate fun atmosphere is exactly what the ear needs to deliver a happiness boost to the system.

Chrissy Williams, maybe without meaning to, has written her own pair much in the style of Junior and Senior. The first book, The Jam Trap (her last book before Flying into the Bear, which came out last year through Soaring Penguin Press) is playful and humorous, filled with stories in the style of prose poems that burst with a sort of sentimental wit. Flying into the Bear (published by Happenstance) is more mature both is style and in content. Much like the aforementioned Scandinavian songsmiths, Williams has shown, eloquently and comprehensively, two completely different sides to her creative endeavours. Though that is perhaps where the similarity ends. Williams will not have to suffer for turning to a more introspective mode of writing. Flying into the Bear is charged with an emotional gravity that far surpasses that of The Jam Trap, making it a more engaging and even more entertaining read.

Words on Cities

Our latest event is fast approaching! Iain Sinclair, Tom Chivers, Katy Darby and Clare Fisher will be allocuting on the city. Click the image for full details.

Review: Sins of the Leopard – James Brookes

[Remember, dear reader, that this is a duplicate article. All Annexe fare goes up directly on http://www.annexemagazine.com now]

Michael Schuller reviews James Brookes’ impressive debut poetry collection.

In the practice of woodturning, the block is placed against the lathe, which cuts against it on each rotation to expose a cross-section of the grain. That image – of the revealing of a mesmerising pattern latent in the structure of the material itself – is as close as I can come to summarising the poetry of James Brookes. He is a poet who has an unusual command of the language, the sort of writer that one images sites in front of a pile of books with a scalpel, rather than a page with a pen. 

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.

XZ#1 – Annexe’s new online fiction series

“The idea is to dissect various genres of writing, film and drama by reconstructing them from the ground up. One story at a time.” This was the spiel we threw at writers to tell them about our new project. We expected such lofty sentences to be thrown back, tied up with a derisive sneer. However, it turns out we know some rather inventive and experimental writers!

Welcome to XZ, our new online fiction project. The aim is to get inside stories and see how different writing styles can join forces to create something fresh, but recognisable. To do this, we’re taking particular genres/styles/species of fiction and breaking them down, looking under the hood and building them back up in smaller chunks.

Each story gets six writers and each writer gets one section. They are given a bare framework to work on, everything else is up to them, and  they aren’t told what the other five writers are coming up with.

The first issue has worked out far more splendidly than we could have hoped, with a story rife with suspense and dangerous turns. It’s the classic tale of a hardboiled detective, employed by a mysterious woman to investigate a murder.

Click to dive straight in and enjoy the story, or feel free to download it at consume at your leisure.

A special thanks go to the six magnificent authors of this tale: Ben Gwalchmai, Komal Verma, Akiho Schilz, Jack Swain, Eley Williams and John Boursnell.

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Part of the project is to invite a bit of discussion from you, the reader. If you want to comment of the project in any way – maybe you have an idea about breaking the story into chapters, or you didn’t like the characters attitude, or you find yourself in sleuth-style experiences and can relate – please leave a comment below. We want to generate an active back-and-forth about the project. The most discussed topics will be added to the issue in a month’s time. 

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! 

Two Tales: Akiho Schilz

For Two Tales (the much-loved sister of Two Poems) we are joined by Akiho Schilz. A writer and poet by trade, Akiho is delving into both for this installment of the series. First, she is reading her short story Not Waving, a tale of growing up and creating one’s own mythology. To complete her reading, Akiho has chosen Leonardo’s Machines, a poem by Tobias Hill from the collection Zoo.

An Arms-Open Leap into the New Year!

2013 is just around the corner! We’ve survived torrential rain, at least a couple of near-apocalyptic instances, overzealous family members around the Christmas dinner table and a slew of events that will shake their fists as we sail past into the new year. Well done!

Now here at Annexe HQ we are really quite excited about the next year. We’ve got a multitude of projects, events and books to give you that we are so proud to be working on. To celebrate what promises to be a whirlwind year, we’re kicking of with a bit of a spoken word party! On Friday 18th January we will fill the space that formerly held the BBC London offices with performances from some incredible poets, writers and musicians. Expect poetry with live soundtrack, animated stories that are illustrated as they are performed, short films, the whole nine yards.

Talia Randall – 3 Mile Radius

Talia Randall, a founding member of the poetry collective Rubix, has been carving it out on her own recently. She has just released her debut EP 3 Mile Radius, a spoken word epic, combining clever poetic narrative and huge musical backdrops. After the sell-out launch for the EP, Nick Murray met with Talia to chat about influences, chicken shops and growing up in North West London.