Louis Armand (writer)



Louis Armand, (born 1972, Sydney) is a writer, visual artist, and critical theorist. He has lived in Prague since 1994.

He has published ten novels, including Vampyr (2020), GlassHouse (2018), The Combinations (2016; shortlisted for The Guardian's Not the Booker Prize), Cairo (2014; longlisted for the Dublin IMPAC Award), and Breakfast at Midnight (2012; described by 3:AM's Richard Marshall as "a perfect modern noir"). In addition, he is the author of numerous collections of poetry – most recently, Monument (with John Kinsella, 2020), East Broadway Rundown (2015) The Rube Goldberg Variations (2015), & Synopticon (with John Kinsella, 2012). He has also authored a number of volumes of criticism, including Videology (2015) & The Organ-Grinder's Monkey: Culture after the Avantgarde (2013). His poetry has appeared in the anthologies Thirty Australian Poets, The Best Australian Poems, Calyx: 30 Contemporary Australian Poets & The Penguin Anthology of Australian Poetry.

In 1997 he received the Max Harris prize for poetry at the Penola Festival (Adelaide) and in 2000 he was awarded the Nassau Review Prize (New York). His screenplay Clair Obscur won honourable mention at the 2009 Trieste Film Festival.< In 2004, Armand founded the Prague International Poetry Festival, and since 2009 has co-organised the Prague Microfestival.

He is a member of the editorial board of Rhizomes: Studies in Cultural Knowledge and founding editor (1994) of the online journal HJS (Hypermedia Joyce Studies). He is the founding editor of VLAK Magazine, and directs the Centre for Critical & Cultural Theory at Charles University, Prague.

Works
Armand's poems have appeared in Meanjin, Agenda, The Age, Stand, Poetry Review, Verse and Sulfur, as well as Penguin Anthology of Australian Poetry (ed. John Kinsella 2008), 30 Contemporary Australian Poets (eds. Michael Brennan and Peter Minter, 2000), and Best Australian Poems'' (ed. Peter Rose, 2008). He is author of five volumes of poetry and a number of chapbooks including: Land Partition (2001), Inexorable Weather (2001), Malice in Underland (2003) and Strange Attractors (2003). The Garden, a work of experimental fiction was published in 2001.

Armand's novels include Clair Obscur (2011); Breakfast at Midnight (2012), critically acclaimed and described by critics as a “twisted, brilliantly savage acid noir” and a “wonderfully executed nod to Kafka's special brand of disorienting surrealism”; Canicule (2013); Cairo (2014), which was shortlisted for the Guardian's Not the Booker Prize, Abacus (Vagabond, 2015), The Combinations (2016), shortlisted for the Guardian's Not the Booker Prize and praised as "an important and corrosive novel, which is a commitment to creativity in the face of absurdity, a politics of avant garde literary concentration and experience”, and most recently, Vampyr (2020) and The Garden: Director's Cut (2020).

In 2013, Breakfast at Midnight was translated into Czech by David Vichnar and published by Argo Press.

Armand's critical and theoretical work has been published in journals such as CTheory, Triquarterly and Culture Machine. His most recent books include Videology, vols. 1 & 2 (2015, 2017), Helixtrolysis: Cyberology & the Joycean “Tyrondynamon Machine” (2014), The Organ Grinder's Monkey (2013),Solicitations: Essays on Criticism & Culture (2008), Event States: Discourse, Time, Mediality (2007) and Contemporary Poetics (2007).

Publications

 * Poetry

. Prague: Twisted Spoon Press, 1998.

The Viconian Paramour. New York: x-poezie, 1998.

Erosions. Sydney: Vagabond Press, 1999. (chapbook)

Anatomy Lessons. New York: x-poezie, 1999. (chapbook)

Land Partition. Melbourne: Textbase Publications, 2001.

Base Materialism. New York: x-poezie, 2001. (chapbook)

Weather'' Todmorden, Lancs. (UK): Arc Publications, 2001.

in Underland'' Melbourne: Textbase, 2003.

Attractors'' Cambridge: Salt Publications, 2003.

Primitive'' NY: Antigen, 2006.

from Ausland'' Sydney: Vagabond, 2011.

(with John Kinsella) (Prague: Litteraria, 2012)

Objects'' (Sydney: Vagabond, 2014)

Rube Goldberg Variations (Prague: Vlak Records, 2015)

Broadway Rundown'' (Prague: Vlak Records, 2015)

(with John Kinsella; London: Hesterglock Press, 2020)


 * Fiction

The Garden (Cambridge: Salt, 2001) Garden''

Menudo (New York: Antigen, 2006)

Obscur'' (London: Equus, 2011)

at Midnight'' (London: Equus, 2012)

(London: Equus, 2013)

o půlnoci'' (trans. David Vichnar; Prague: Argo, 2013)

(London: Equus, 2014)

(Sydney: Vagabond Press, 2015)

Combinations'' (London: Equus, 2016)

(London: Equus, 2018)

(Always Crashing 3, 2020)

Garden (Director's Cut)'' (Minneapolis: 11:11, 2020)

(Alienist, 2020)

Palenque'' (Minor Literatures, 2021)


 * Theory

[http://issuu.com/litteraria/docs/skrabanekNight Joyce of a Thousand Tiers. Petr Škrabánek: Studies in Finnegans Wake] Eds. Louis Armand & Ondrej Pilny. Prague: Litteraria Pragensia Books, 2002.

James Joyce, Hypertext & Technology'' Prague: Karolinum Press/Charles University Press, 2003.

James Joyce, Genetics and Hypermedia'' Ed. Louis Armand. Prague: Litteraria Pragensia Books, 2004.

Factory'' Ed. Louis Armand. Prague: Litteraria Pragensia Books, 2005.

Joyce: Envoys of the Other'' Eds. Louis Armand & Clare Wallace. Prague: Litteraria Pragensia Books, 2006. (2nd edition)

Eds. Louis Armand & Arthur Bradley. Prague: Litteraria Pragensia Books, 2006.

Devices: Discourses of the Other'' Prague: Karolinum Press, 2006.

Technologies: Language, Cognition, Technicity'' Prague: Litteraria Pragensia Books, 2006.

Ed. Louis Armand. Prague: Litteraria Pragensia Books, 2006.

States: Discourse, Time, Mediality'' Prague: Litteraria Pragensia Books, 2007.

Poetics'' Ed. Louis Armand. Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 2007.

Systems: After Prague Structuralism'' Ed. Louis Armand with Pavel Černovský. Prague: Litteraria Pragensia Books, 2007.

Essays on Criticism & Culture'' (First edition 2005) Expanded and revised edition, Prague: Litteraria Pragensia Books, 2008.

Agendas Unreported Poetics'' Ed. Louis Armand. Prague: Litteraria Pragensia Books, 2010.

Joyce'' Eds. David Vichnar & Louis Armand. Prague: Litteraria Pragensia Books, 2010.

Return of Kral Majales Prague's International Literary Renaissance 1990–2010 An Anthology'' Ed. Louis Armand. Prague: Litteraria Pragensia Books, 2010.

Organ-Grinder's Monkey'' Prague: Litteraria Pragensia Books, 2013.

/ Cyberology & the Joycean “Tyrondynamon Machine”'' Prague: Litteraria Pragensia Books, 2014.

Prague: Litteraria Pragensia Books, 2015.

2'' Prague: Litteraria Pragensia Books, 2017.


 * Exhibitions

Galerie Artnatur (1999) Solo

Galerie Gambit (2002) Solo

Southern: 10 Contemporary Australian Artists, Home Gallery (2004) co-curator

Art Prague (2006)

Hunger Gallery (2010) Solo