Monochrome, Perfect-bound Paperback, 210 x 148mm, 84pp

Chicagos presents five sequences of 50 ‘chicagos’ — a poetic form created by Paul Fournel of Oulipo (the Ouvroir de littérature potentielle, or Workhop of Potential Literature), which bears a family resemblance to the riddle. It consists of a single stanza of five lines: the final line is a homophonic translation of a place name (or of the name of a person, a cheese, etc.); the first four lines are homosyntactic translations, or variants, of the final line, the “solution” to the riddle, which is held in abeyance for the reader to guess.

As well as referencing Old English riddles this text is also in the tradition of the medieval bestiary. It's not deep and meaningful, but it's fun to read and radiates a zest for language. It's also something that most readers would come back to again and again, as it's a text that you can dip into and enjoy…”

— Alan Baker, Litter Magazine

“It’s not often that a poet tells you exactly how to respond to their work. It inverts our expectations. By refusing analysis, it provokes analysis in response. You want to ask: “but is it poetry?” Isn’t this the quintessential response to the arts in our time?”

— Joe Darlington, Manchester Review of Books