MEDELLIN INTERNATIONAL POETRY FESTIVAL

Turin International Book Fair
The Book Launch: Finché la vittima non sarà nostra

Concepita come il grado zero dell'ormai celebre trilogia Poena Damni, Finché la vittima non sarà nostra, alternando diversi tipi di narrazione, esplora l'evoluzione della violenza e delle sue metamorfosi, dalle sue origini animali alla sua futura forma di superorganismo digitale. Presentazione in anteprima mondiale.

FINCHÉ LA VITTIMA NON SARÀ NOSTRA Italian Edition
Trad by Viviana Sebastio. Translated by Viviana Sebastio, Published by: Il Saggiatore

Conversation at Trinity College Dublin
With James Hadley and Andrew Barrett

INTERVIEW - Il lato nascosto della violenza
Italian interview at Lo Spazio Letterario

Finché la vittima non sarà nostra di Dimitris Lyacos uscirà per Il Saggiatore il prossimo 29 aprile. Si tratta, secondo l’autore, di un “libro zero” da anteporre all’ormai celebre trilogia Poena Damni, che ha per protagonista un uomo in fuga ma non spiega da chi, da cosa, da dove stia scappando, omettendo di definire il passato, rivelando solo le cicatrici residue. Sarà il libro nuovo a tracciare una mappa dell’universo pre-fuga, il quale – come sorprendersi? – non è altro che la civiltà occidentale, di cui Lyacos ci fornisce sia uno scavo archeologico che una panoramica aerea (a partire dalle origini giudaico-cristiane, attraverso industrializzazione e capitalismo, fino alla digital-globale era presente).

Chapter L from UNTIL THE VICTIM BECOMES OUR OWN
RIVER STYX, PRINT EDITION

Chapter L from Until the Victim Becomes our Own. Many congratulations go to Andrew Barrett.

Kopek review
POENA DAMNI, de Dimitris Lyacos

A selection from the trilogy in Spanish translations. Many congratulations to my translator Luis Miguel Isava.

Nyctivoe II (2024) for violin and violoncello
Gregory Rowland Evans | Antigone Music Collective

Nyctivoe II (2024) for Violin and Violoncello was premiered by Antigone Music Collective on November 23, 2024 at The Well in Cincinnati, Ohio.Nyctivoe II was subsequently performed by Antigone Music Collective on December 8, 2024 in Mixon Hall on the campus of the Cleveland Institute of Music.

MICHIGAN QUARTERLY REVIEW: A Conversation with Dimitris Lyacos
By Toti O'Brien

Dimitris Lyacos’s Poena Damni is one of the most highly regarded works of contemporary European literature. Renowned for combining, in a genre-defying form, themes from literary tradition and elements from ritual, religion, philosophy, anthropology, the trilogy reexamines grand narratives in the context of some of the enduring motifs of the Western Canon, most notably violence, mental illness, the scapegoat, and the return of the dead. Developed as a work in progress over the course of three decades, it has been translated in more than twenty languages, and has given rise to musical, visual, and theatre projects. Chapters from the trilogy’s prequel, Until the Victim Becomes our Own, were published or are forthcoming in MAYDAY, Image Journal, River Styx and Chicago Review.

No Substance
#204. Dimitris Lyacos’ POENA DAMNI

During the last week, I read Dimitris Lyacos’ Poena Damni trilogy. It’s published by Shoestring Press in a nice box set, and consists of three books, Z213: Exit, With the People Under the Bridge, and The First Death. This reading order is not the publication order, as The First Death was published first, and Z213: Exit last. It’s an interesting thing to note because, in the case of The First Death, I couldn’t help but feel like that was a bit of retconning was taking place. Of course, that’s an entirely personal thought, and not one presented by Lyacos, who talks about the work as a whole, one that has been a project for him for over thirty years. There are installations, dance, multimedia projects and more that relate to the Poena Damni project and that speak to a broad, sprawling work that I have only had the smallest of access through, thanks to translator Shorsha Sullivan and Shoestring Press.

READINGS ON THE ISLAND: CHINESE TV PROGRAM
Featuring Dimitris Lyacos, Yu Hua, Su Tong and Xi Chuan. 17 November 2024.

READINGS ON THE ISLAND: CHINESE TV PROGRAM Featuring Dimitris Lyacos, Yu Hua, Su Tong and Xi Chuan. 17 November 2024.Produced by: Jiangsu Broadcasting CorporationLyacos from minute 9.15

Excerpt from UNTIL THE VICTIM BECOMES OUR OWN
Chapter V

Why is this night different from all other nights? High up in the sky, the day endures for a little longer, but the houses below have gone dark and the lights are already coming on, more and more of them now, they keep coming on, only a few windows are still dark, time passes, here is one that came on late, and that’s about it now, there will be no more, time passes and then once again, one by one, they will go out, they came on for only a few hours, now it’s time for them to turn off, just a few will stay on, sparse, forgotten, and the people will lower their eyelids and turn to sleep. But, no, tonight they all stay lit, and if you come near the window, you will see that the large table has been set, the candles are burning and will drip forth all the light they have been keeping inside them. And as the night advances, all things will light up, no house tonight will stay in the dark, the light pierces and shines forth through everything, even through walls and the fog and smoke that loom over the city, and, tonight, not even he who closes his eyes, not even he will find darkness. Because tonight, this night is different from all other nights, and it has only come to bring light, to bring along with a different kind of sleep inside of which everyone awakens and remembers, they remember that night, that night from another world, when they had wrapped up their sleep along with the rest and had taken it with them, and now they remember how they had left at that time. It was at that time, that night that had opened the door for them, and they left, led by this flashlight that showed them the way from above and brought them here, where the city is now, this city whose doors kept opening and closing, tonight, and all the people went from house to house, and doors kept opening and closing like thousands of wings. Because they had come here all together and they never forgot that, they remembered and they rejoiced, how it came to be that they left at that time, how during that night, the door was drawn open, the one that had never been opened before. That’s why they were seated around this table, this is what they were celebrating tonight. And they kept talking about that house, which was always in their minds, which they knew was expecting them somewhere, and they talked about he who had come to take them with him, who beckoned them and they all went out in the street, and that’s how they left at that time, and now they were here and every year they kept recounting the story, they rose to speak in turns while the others listened, and the children listened so that they would come to learn how the blood dripped on their doorstep and unlocked the door, how they packed their things in the dead of night and left, how they ate in haste, stealthily, in the dark, and when the day broke, they were all on the road, and a plangent cry was heard everywhere as they left, the loudest and the most mournful that had ever been heard, and nothing like this would be heard ever again, but they did not look back, that was the hour when day broke, the sun was opposite them, the sun was in their eyes and mud was on their feet, a salty kind of mud, the mud, reeds, and mosquitoes, and then the dust, they were unable to see because of the wind and the dust, and no water at all, not even under the stones, nothing, nowhere, not even a drop, only the animals that quenched their thirst with blood, and from the blood of one to the blood of the next they kept going, and went on eating their animals one after the other, but still their thirst kept stalking them. But in the end, they found this river that, as soon as they set foot upon it, stood still as if its water had turned to ice, and let them pass. And they passed. And today the city is standing around them and it has no limit, they said, no place exists outside of us any longer, we have been free ever since and you are hearing the story tonight, so that you can tell it, later, when we are gone, and keep telling it and we shall keep coming home to this great feast.

INTERVIEW - THE COMMON
By Toti O’Brien

DIMITRIS LYACOS describes his new book, Until the Victim Becomes our Own, as a prequel to his world-renowned trilogy, Poena Damni—which begins with a fugitive on a train, but never clarifies what, whom, and where from he has fled, hinting at the past only through the traces it left, showing us a mere geography of scars. Until the Victim Becomes our Own reels us back to the pre-fugue universe, mapping both an archeological grid and a bird’s-eye view of our very own Western civilization, founded on Judeo-Christian traditions, then evolved through industrialization and capitalism up to the digitally-global present day.Though he was bound to Israel when  TOTI O’BRIEN reached out to him with her questions, Lyacos agreed to interweave their conversation with his travels, and we are glad he did.

INTERVIEW - MICHIGAN QUARTERLY REVIEW
FLOWING FROM AN ABSENT SOURCE By Toti O’Brien

Dimitris Lyacos’s Poena Damni is one of the most highly regarded works of contemporary European literature. Renowned for combining, in a genre-defying form, themes from literary tradition and elements from ritual, religion, philosophy, anthropology, the trilogy reexamines grand narratives in the context of some of the enduring motifs of the Western Canon, most notably violence, mental illness, the scapegoat, and the return of the dead. Developed as a work in progress over the course of three decades, it has been translated in more than twenty languages, and has given rise to musical, visual, and theatre projects. Chapters from the trilogy’s prequel, Until the Victim Becomes our Own, were published or are forthcoming in MAYDAY, Image Journal, River Styx and Chicago Review.

Poetry? Prose? Delirium, myth, prediction?
“Poena damni” di Dimitris Lyacos

Poesia? Prosa? Delirio, mito, previsione? Per Dimitris Lyacos i confini non importano. Sono binari da attraversare sperando che non passi nessun treno, sono linee fatte per essere superate, recinti mentali che la penna può attraversare impunemente e modificare con un semplice tratto che s’interrompe, si torce, si distende: un segno scritto, una parola. Un verso, una frammento, una pagina.La sua ricerca è ardua come la salita a un monte troppo liscio per essere scalato: il significato di ogni passaggio sfugge e si mimetizza agli occhi dei lettori dentro un testo complesso e articolato eppure così esile da sembrare velocissimo.

Parole spalancate
FESTIVAL INTERNAZIONALE DI POESIA DI GENOVA