Alex Houen
@alexhouen.bsky.social
§ Academic https://www.english.cam.ac.uk/people/Alex.Houen § Co-editor of Blackbox Manifold http://www.manifold.group.shef.ac.uk § Poet https://blackspringpressgroup.com/products/ring-cycle
Delighted to find myself in this treasure trove. Thank you!
Alex Houen@alexhouen.bsky.social · 6d ago⚡️BLACKBOX MANIFOLD 36 is now live!⚡️ One of our best Issues yet. Poems by @ianseedauthor.bsky.social, Hannah Linden, Forrest Gander, @keane_byrne, @suchmayer.bsky.social, & others Adam Piette reviews Denise Riley, Peter Riley, Bernadette Mayer, Sara Nicholson sites.google.com/sheffield.ac...
Check out Isssue 36 of Blackbox Manifold. I have 3 poems in it: “planted,” “the relationship diminishing,” and “golden fruit.” I especially enjoyed poems by Dr. Alicia Byrne Keane & Ashik Kahina. @alexhouen.bsky.social #poetry #poetrycommunity #BlackboxManifold blackboxmanifold.sites.sheffield.ac.uk
Blackbox Manifold
Issue 36: Summer 2026
blackboxmanifold.sites.sheffield.ac.uk
⚡️BLACKBOX MANIFOLD 36 is now live!⚡️ One of our best Issues yet. Poems by @ianseedauthor.bsky.social, Hannah Linden, Forrest Gander, @keane_byrne, @suchmayer.bsky.social, & others Adam Piette reviews Denise Riley, Peter Riley, Bernadette Mayer, Sara Nicholson sites.google.com/sheffield.ac...
Blackbox Manifold
Issue 36: Summer 2026
sites.google.com
Starting this September, these 10 Sacred Parasite books will be on sale at Bookartbookshop, SP's 2nd London location, so today I'm sending a big Dankeschön west to owner Tanya Peixoto, to her and to all the other bookstore owners seeing Sacred Parasite through door after door.
So we’ve been cooking up some thoughts on Gen AI at @amnesty.org and I’m ecstatic to finally see it out in the world! Our 🗝️ conclusion: standalone gen AI systems, built on unlawful web scraping, constitute mass invasions of privacy by design & should be prohibited www.amnesty.org/en/latest/ne...
Xing the line, Sunday June 14, includes Stephen Watts and Ghazal Mosadeq. 'Join hosts Iris Colomb and Jeff Hilson for a bumper evening of basement words and sounds from Dream Bags Jaguar Shoes, 32-36 Kingsland Rd E2 8DA. £5 waged, £3 unwaged. Doors at 6pm for a 7pm start.'
I wrote about what it's like to read the poetry of J.H. Prynne
In Darkness by Day
Reading J.H. Prynne (1936-2026)
someflowerssoon.substack.com
Our Small Press Poetry Collection contains publications from over 100 non-mainstream international presses, focussing on the avant-garde. We recently added Louis Zukovsky's posthumously published final work '80 Flowers' (1978) to this collection. SPP tinyurl.com/mrx5rx87 🖼️SPP 1983, Broadside 50
We've won Small Press of the Year for Wales! It's great to be recognised for our work degentrifying the arts, platforming low socio-economic writers, & without grants or institutional support! To celebrate, everything is 10% off on our website with code 'WINNERS2026' www.brokensleepbooks.com/books
‘As one Iranian Telegram channel put it: “Once again the US attacked while Iran was pursuing diplomacy. Once again diplomacy does not work with the terrorist state of the US.”’ www.theguardian.com/world/2026/f...
Yet another mid-talks attack jeopardises chances of Iran taking Trump seriously
Second Israeli-US attack during nuclear negotiations may finally jettison any chance of agreement
theguardian.com
At the opening of her recent London show, Romanian artist Teodora Axente wore a dress she had stitched herself for the occasion: a sheer chiffon number, with three sleeves. The extra limb wasn’t mere whimsy, but a reference to Saint John of Damascus, who, accused of treachery, had his right hand cut
Teodora Axente’s Transylvanian fantasies
The Romanian artist blends Orthodox tradition with witty surrealism. It’s her vocation...
ft.com
I am very glad to have been the occasion of this new series for C21 Literature. Huge thanks to Alex Houen, Leonid Bilmes, Laura A. Zander, and Adam Kelly for their engagements with Free Indirect, and to Denise Wong and Oli Haslam for the invitation to respond.
Denise Wong@heyitsdenisew.bsky.social · 6mo agoSo pleased to be launching @c21literature.bsky.social ’s inaugural roundtable review w/ @olihaslam.bsky.social ! Thank you to our fabulous contributors for their work on this excellent piece 👏👏👏
Visionary, urgent… truly extraordinary blendings of environmental & social history. - Mark Wormald A spirited, astonishing, bewildering collection. - Adam Piette One of 2024's wildest volumes of poetry. - Christian Bok 'Eely' Steve Ely £2 off until 4 February longbarrowpress.com/current-publ...
C21 journal has published a ‘round table review’ of Timothy Bewes’s book FREE INDIRECT. It includes a short essay by me; other contributors include Leonid Bilmes, Laura Zander & Adam Kelly. Bewes does a response at the end 👇 c21.openlibhums.org/article/id/2... @c21literature.bsky.social
<em>C21</em>’s Roundtable Review of Timothy Bewes’s <em>Free Indirect: The Novel in a Postfictional Age</em> (2022)
c21.openlibhums.org
Chicago Review seeks pitches of critical reviews, commentary essays, notes and reflections on contemporary British experimental poetry 👇 mailchi.mp/d31d83f35611...
CHICAGO REVIEW CALL FOR PITCHES: NEW BRITISH POETRY
mailchi.mp
London’s Gallery Rosenfeld has announced the launch of the Ian Rosenfeld Fund—a £7,500 annual award supporting an early- to mid-career artist. Details👇 www.prazzlearts.com/opportunitie...
Grant: The Ian Rosenfeld Fund
Gallery Rosenfeld has announced the launch of the Ian Rosenfeld Fund—a £7,500 annual award supporting an early- to mid-career artist, continuing Ian Rosenfeld’s legacy of championi
prazzlearts.com
✨BLACKBOX MANIFOLD 35✨ is now live, with poems by Shara McCallum, Dorothy Lehane, Rebecca Goss, Angela Gardner, Philip Terry, and others. Plus Adam Piette reviews Keaton Sutherland and Jennifer Scappettone blackboxmanifold.sites.sheffield.ac.uk
Blackbox Manifold
Danielle Boodoo-Fortuné Cameron Clark James Coghill Toby d'Arpino David Eileen Naomi Foyle Angela Gardner Rebecca Goss Kevin Graham Michael Grieve Eddie Heaton
blackboxmanifold.sites.sheffield.ac.uk
‘From 2028, universities must pay a new flat tax or “levy” of £925 for every international student they recruit. Coming on top of tighter visa restrictions, which make recruitment harder, some universities will find it increasingly tough to balance their books’ www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
The Guardian view on universities: Labour needs a clearer plan | Editorial
Editorial: Ministers promised a ‘change of approach’, but their new tax could tip weaker institutions over the edge
theguardian.com
Hard to roll this powdery snow into a ball, so my daughter made a snow blob named Jimathon ❄️
Amazon announces Ask This Book AI bot. Authors and publishers were not asked to be included and cannot opt-out.
New Kindle Feature Uses AI to Answer Questions About Books—And Authors Can't Opt Out - Reactor
The new feature, called Ask this Book, is already drawing controversy and unanswered questions.
reactormag.com
Going to this on Sunday. Still reading Alex and Geoff's poem-novel *See You Through* published by @brokensleepbooks.bsky.social & finding it pretty astonishing. Hope it finds some of the readers who have responded to e.g. writing by @waidner.bsky.social -- anyway, come if you can, London
Alex Houen@alexhouen.bsky.social · 8mo agoLooking fwd to doing a poetry reading with Geoff Gilbert and Maria Sledmere for the ✨Xing the Line✨ series, next Sun 14th Dec, 6pm at Dream Bags Jaguar Shoes, 32-36 Kingsland Rd, London, E2 8DA 👇 www.facebook.com/groups/14049...
“The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) posted its own video edit of the seizure, soundtracked with an excerpt from LL Cool J’s song Mama Said Knock You Out” www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
Venezuela decries ‘act of piracy’ after US forces seize oil tanker off country’s coast
Footage uploaded to X by US attorney general shows its forces landing on the tanker in major escalation of Trump’s pressure campaign
theguardian.com
Looking fwd to doing a poetry reading with Geoff Gilbert and Maria Sledmere for the ✨Xing the Line✨ series, next Sun 14th Dec, 6pm at Dream Bags Jaguar Shoes, 32-36 Kingsland Rd, London, E2 8DA 👇 www.facebook.com/groups/14049...
Xing the Line | Facebook
Iris Colomb created an event for the group.
facebook.com
✨Submissions are now open for The Propel Cambridge Poetry Prize 2026✨ Entry is free and poets anywhere in the world who have not yet published a full-length collection can submit. The winning poem will receive a prize of £750 and publication in Propel Magazine. english.cam.ac.uk/news/archives/…
english.cam.ac.uk
‘The new UN report, covering a two-year period since the beginning of the Gaza war on 7 October 2023, draws attention to the “high proportion of children who are currently detained without charge or on remand”’ www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...
Israel has ‘de facto state policy’ of organised torture, says UN report
Committee highlights allegations including dog attacks and sexual violence, raising concern about impunity for war crimes
theguardian.com
