IT REEKS OF RADIO by Christodoulos Makris

It Reeks of Radio is a book-length poem composed entirely from fragments of communication around historical (pre-1980s) RTÉ Radio programming - the result of poet Christodoulos Makris' year-long engagement with the RTÉ Radio Scripts Collection held in the UCD Archives.

It draws several interweaving threads that include the mechanics of historical correspondence, power dynamics within Ireland's state broadcaster and across to writers, contributors, the public, government and the BBC, attitudes to gender and nationality, artists' work and pay conditions, and more. Also embedded in the poem is commentary on its own composition through parallels found in the archival material.

Declining to offer easy conclusions, It Reeks of Radio is a poetic response to motifs and undercurrents in relations between public and private at the level of institution, while proposing extrapolations across time to the current moment.

Published by BLR Editions
132 pages
140 x 220 mm
ISBN 9781739364007