Louis Armand, is a writer, visual artist and critical theorist. He has lived in Prague since 1994. Armand’s work has been described as “Avant-garde , best appreciated by readers prepared to abandon the baggage of identity-driven poetry and systematically naturalist prose." He has published eight novels, The Combinations, Cairo, and Breakfast at Midnight. In addition, he is the author of ten collections of poetry – most recently, East Broadway RundownThe Rube Goldberg Variations, & Synopticon – & of a number of volumes of criticism, including Videology & The Organ-Grinder’s Monkey: Culture after the Avantgarde. 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 and in 2000 he was awarded the Nassau Review Prize. 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 of the online journalHJS. 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 , , and . He is author of five volumes of poetry and a number of chapbooks including: Land Partition, Inexorable Weather, Malice in Underland and Strange Attractors. The Garden, a work of experimental fiction was published in 2001. Armand’s novels include Clair Obscur ; Breakfast at Midnight, 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 ; Cairo, which was shortlisted for the Guardian’s Not the Booker Prize 2014, and, most recently, Abacus. 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 Helixtrolysis: Cyberology & the Joycean “Tyrondynamon Machine”, The Organ Grinder's Monkey,Solicitations: Essays on Criticism & Culture, Event States: Discourse, Time, Mediality and Contemporary Poetics.
Publications
;Poetry . Prague: Twisted Spoon Press, 1998. The Viconian Paramour. New York: x-poezie, 1998. Erosions. Sydney: Vagabond Press, 1999. Anatomy Lessons. New York: x-poezie, 1999. Land Partition. Melbourne: Textbase Publications, 2001. Base Materialism. New York: x-poezie, 2001. . Todmorden, Lancs. : Arc Publications, 2001. Malice in Underland. Melbourne: Textbase, 2003. . Cambridge: Salt Publications, 2003. Picture Primitive. NY: Antigen, 2006. Sydney: Vagabond, 2011. ;Fiction The Garden Menudo Clair Obscur Breakfast at Midnight Canicule Snídaně o půlnoci Cairo Abacus The Combinations ;Criticism ed. Louis Armand. Prague: Charles Univ., 2010. eds. David Vichnar & Louis Armand. Prague: Charles Univ., 2010. ed. Louis Armand. Prague: Charles Univ., 2010. . Prague: Karolinum Press/Charles University Press, 2003. . Prague: Karolinum Press/Charles University Press, 2005/6. . Prague: Litteraria Pragensia, 2006. . Prague: Litteraria Pragensia, 2007. . Expanded and revised edition, Prague: Litteraria Pragensia, 2008. . Eds. Louis Armand & Ondrej Pilny. Prague: Litteraria Pragensia, 2002. . Ed. Louis Armand. Prague: Litteraria Pragensia, 2006. . Ed. Louis Armand. Prague: Litteraria Pragensia, 2004. . Ed. Louis Armand. Prague: Litteraria Pragensia, 2005. . Eds. Louis Armand & Clare Wallace. Prague: Litteraria Pragensia, 2006. . Eds. Louis Armand and Arthur Bradley. Prague: Litteraria Pragensia, 2006. . Ed. Louis Armand. Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 2007. . Ed. Louis Armand with Pavel Černovsky. Prague: Litteraria Pragensia, 2007. ;Exhibitions Galerie Artnatur Solo Galerie Gambit Solo Southern: 10 Contemporary Australian Artists, Home Gallery co-curator
