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. 

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“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: Never Never Never Come Back – Kirsten Irving

It is rare to find a collection such as Never Never Never Come Back. One that is wildly varied and still feels cohesive; like the work of a single author. Irving really flexes her skill with her first collection. The different styles and methods of writing are apparent and she manages to make each one her own. What is troublesome for me is that the numerous branches leading out of the book make it hard to talk about collection without making general sweeping statements about its goodness, so instead I’ll just highlight a couple of my favourites and go from there.

Meanwhile…

After a mad few weeks putting together Interrobang, we’re blasting back into action with the online side of Annexe. As we haven’t had a meanwhile in some time, here’s one for you. A list of what’s going on in literature both in cyberspace (how delightfully 90’s) and IRL.

We’ve got poems created by search engines, book vending machines, beautifully scented poetry, and some love poems that just stink!

Two Poems: Anya Pearson

For 2012’s first edition of Two Poems, we bring you Anya Pearson. A co-founder of the poetry publication, Inc. Magazine, and a brilliant poet and writer, Anya is reshaping London’s literary scene. Today she reads one of her own poems and one by Felix Hodcroft.

Our First Show of the Year!

Hurray! The cover is off and we can unveil to you our first event of the year. Annexe has been invited to be part of an exhibition exploring the various practices of independent and alternative publishers.

The exhibition is being curated by the magnificent Ladies of the Press* and, alongside ourselves, will include work from Very Small Kitchen and Pigeon Magazine.

Over the last month of so, we have been meeting to discuss our practices, create some collaborative texts and generally unravel just what it is that we’re all doing. Working with the Ladies of the Press* is always a dynamic experience and this has been no different. Our text-based norms have been taken to performative and art-based avenues that they weren’t so familiar with. But as with any journey, they have come out with a wealth of knowledge from the other side.

Over this week we shall be letting slip more about the show, but for now you can have a read of the press release for the show.

Two Tales: Komal Verma

Today is an auspicious day for Annexe as it marks the first prose addition to what was previously the Two Poems series. You can still divide the two if you are that way inclined; Two Tales and Two Poems will still have their own categories, but if you’re an all-encompassing lexiphile you can click on the Two Texts category to get both in one delightful bundle.

The first author to read some prose for you is the exception Komal Verma. We spoke to Komal a little while ago about her upcoming novel The Sword and The Scion. Ever the versatile  writer, Komal also crafts stories in a more bitesize length. Today she is reading her short piece The Warning and an extract from Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities.

The Warning – Komal Verma

Cities & Desire – Italo Calvino

More about both works after the jump

The Word According to Abe Christie

We’re a little late bringing this installment of Abe’s fantastic comic this week, but we will be making it up to you. Before the week is up we’ll have a chat with the man himself and find out what makes him tick. Watch out for the results.

Click the image to see it bigger. As if you’re seeing it up close. Really close.