Editing Christian Bök

{{short description|Canadian poet}}
{{Infobox writer  <!--For more information, see [[:Template:Infobox Writer/doc]].-->
| name = Christian Bök
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| image = Christian Bok reading from Eunoia at the University of York 19 May 2011.jpg
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| alt = Bök reading from ''[[Eunoia (book)|Eunoia]]'' at the [[University of York]]
| caption = Bök reading from ''[[Eunoia (book)|Eunoia]]'' at the [[University of York]] on May 19, 2011
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| birth_name = Christian Book
| birth_date =    {{birth date and age|1966|08|10}}
| birth_place = Toronto
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| occupation = Poet
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| nationality = [[Canadians|Canadian]]
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| education = B.A, M.A, PhD
| alma_mater = [[Carleton University]], [[York University]]
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| movement = 
| notableworks =  ''[[Eunoia (book)|Eunoia]]''<br />''[[Crystallography (book)|Crystallography]]''<br />''[[The Xenotext|The Xenotext (Book 1)]]''
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| awards = [[Griffin Poetry Prize]] 2002
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'''Christian Bök''', [[Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada|FRSC]] ({{IPAc-en|b|ʊ|k}}; born August 10, 1966, in [[Toronto]], Canada) is a [[Canadian poetry|Canadian poet]] known for his [[avant-garde|experimental]] works. He is the author of ''[[Eunoia (book)|Eunoia]]'', which won the Canadian [[Griffin Poetry Prize]].

==Life and work==
He was born "Christian Book", but uses "Bök" as a pseudonym.

He began writing seriously in his early twenties, while earning his B.A. and M.A. degrees at [[Carleton University]] in [[Ottawa]]. He returned to Toronto in the early 1990s to study for a Ph.D. in English literature at [[York University]], where he encountered a burgeoning literary community that included [[Steve McCaffery]], [[Christopher Dewdney]], and [[Darren Wershler]]. Since 2004, he taught at the [[University of Calgary]] — but as of 2022, he works as an artist in Melbourne, Australia, and he serves as a Professor (Honorary Appointee) at Charles Darwin University in Darwin, Australia. <ref>[http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2007/07/the-xenotext-experiment-an-interview-with-christian-bok/ The Xenotext Experiment: An Interview with Christian Bök]</ref>

In 1994, Bök published ''[[Crystallography (book)|Crystallography]]'', "a [[pataphysical]] encyclopaedia that misreads the language of [[poetics]] through the conceits of [[geology]]." The ''Village Voice'' said of it: "Bök's concise reflections on mirrors, [[fractal]]s, stones, and ice diabolically change the way you think about language — his, yours — so that what begins as description suddenly seems indistinguishable from the thing itself."<ref name=voice>Ed Park, "[http://www.villagevoice.com/2003-12-16/books/crystal-method/ Crystal Method]," ''Village Voice'', Dec. 16, 2003.</ref> ''Crystallography'' was reissued in 2003 <ref name=voice/> and was nominated for a [[Gerald Lampert Award]].

Bök is a [[sound poet]], who has performed an extremely condensed version of the "Ursonate" by [[Kurt Schwitters]]. He has created [[conceptual art]], making [[artist's book]]s from [[Rubik's Cube]]s and [[Lego]] bricks. He has also worked in science-fiction television by constructing [[artificial language]]s for [[Gene Roddenberry]]'s ''[[Earth: Final Conflict]]'' and [[Peter Benchley]]'s ''[[Amazon (1999 TV series)|Amazon]]''.

===''Eunoia''===
Bök is most famous for writing ''[[Eunoia (book)|Eunoia]]'' (2001), a book that took him seven years to finish.<ref name=voice/> ''Eunoia'' consists of [[univocalic]] lipograms. The book uses only one vowel in each of its five chapters. In the book's main part, each chapter uses just a single vowel, producing sentences such as this: "Enfettered, these sentences repress free speech."<ref>{{cite web |last=Shelburne |first=Curtis K. |url=http://www.cnjonline.com/articles/love_30557___article.html/writes_one.html |title=God writes his love in one word &#124; love, writes, one - Faith and Lifestyles - Clovis News Journal |publisher=Cnjonline.com |date=2008-10-16 |accessdate=2012-01-14 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120724100916/http://www.cnjonline.com/articles/love_30557___article.html/writes_one.html |archive-date=2012-07-24 }}</ref> Bök believes that "his book proves that each vowel has its own personality."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_7697000/7697762.stm |title=BBC - Today |work=BBC News |date=2008-10-30 |accessdate=2012-01-14}}</ref>

Edited by Darren Wershler and published by [[Coach House Books]] in 2001, ''Eunoia'' won the 2002 Griffin Poetry Prize and sold more than 20,000 copies.<ref name=bestseller>{{cite news|url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/calgary-poet-hits-u-k-bestseller-list-1.850516|title=Calgary poet hits U.K. bestseller list|publisher=cbc.ca|accessdate=2009-01-05| date=2009-01-05}}</ref> [[Canongate Books|Canongate]] published "Eunoia" in Britain in Oct. 2008.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2008/10/29/boll129.xml |title=Literary Life |work=Telegraph |accessdate=2012-01-14}}{{dead link|date=July 2021|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref> The book was also a bestseller there, reaching #8 on the Top 10 bestselling charts for the year.<ref name=bestseller/>

===''The Xenotext''===
''[[The Xenotext]]'' is an ongoing work of [[BioArt]] which claims to be “the first example of ‘living poetry.’”<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Bök |first=Christian |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C0abCgAAQBAJ |title=The Xenotext: Book 1 |date=2015-10-05 |publisher=Coach House Books |isbn=978-1-77056-434-3 |language=en}}</ref> ''The Xenotext'' consists of a single sonnet (called "Orpheus"), which gets translated into a gene and then integrated into a cell, causing the cell to "read" this poem, and in reply, the cell builds a protein — one whose sequence of amino acids encodes yet another sonnet (called "Eurydice"). The cell becomes not only a durable archive for storing a poem, but also an operant machine for writing a poem. The gene has so far worked properly in cultures of ''[[E. coli]]'', but the intended symbiote is ''[[D. radiodurans]]'' ("the dire seed, immune to radiation") — an extremophile, able to thrive in very inhospitable environments, deadly to most life on Earth.

According to Bök from an interview in 2007, the final product will include:

{{quote|a poetic manual that showcases the text of the poem, followed by an artfully designed monograph about the experiment, including, for example, the chemical alphabet for the cipher, the genetic sequence for the poetry, the schematics for the protein, and even a photograph of the microbe, complete with other apparati, such as charts, graphs, images, and essays, all outlining our results. <ref>{{cite web|author=Christian Bök |url=http://pmc.iath.virginia.edu/issue.107/17.2voyce.html |title=The Xenotext Experiment: An Interview with Christian Bök |publisher=PostModern Culture |date=2007 |accessdate=2022-04-19}}</ref>|author=|title=|source=}}

Bök has collaborated with laboratories at the University of Calgary, the University of Wyoming, and the University of Texas (Austin), to realize his design.<ref>{{Citation |title=What is Xenotext? {{!}} Christian Bök {{!}} Walrus Talks |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPnq4_eWgMs |language=en |access-date=2022-05-03}}</ref> In 2011, nine years after conceiving ''The Xenotext,'' Bök announced that labs had performed a successful test run of his “poetic cipher,” meaning that:

{{Quote|text=when implanted in the genome of [the] bacterium, [the] poem (which begins ‘any style of life/ is prim…’) does in fact cause the bacterium to write, in response, its own poem (which begins ‘the faery is rosy/ of glow…’). <ref>{{cite web|author=Christian Bök |url=https://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet-books/2011/04/the-xenotext-works |title=The Xenotext Works |publisher=Poetry Foundation |date=2011-04-02 |accessdate=2022-04-19}}</ref>}}

In 2015, ''The Xenotext: Book I'' was published — a work consisting of meditations on both science and poetics (addressing their mythic drives for immortality). This first, "Orphic" volume sets the conceptual groundwork for the second, "Eurydicean" volume, which will document the experiment itself.<ref name=":0" /> ''The Xenotext: Book II'' is scheduled to be released on May 27, 2025. <ref>{{cite web |last1=Watts |first1=Peter |title=It Awaits Your Experiments |url=https://www.rifters.com/crawl/?p=11511 |website=Rifters |access-date=13 May 2025}}</ref>

=== ''The Kazimir Effect'' ===
In 2021, Bök published ''The Kazimir Effect'' ([https://penteractpress.com/ Penteract Press], 2021), listed as one of the [https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/books-of-the-year-2021/ Times Literary Supplement’s Books of the Year 2021]. This arose from a visual poetry project that begin in 2017, inspired by ''[[White on White|Suprematist Composition: White on White]]'' by [[Kazimir Malevich]].

==Recognition==
''Eunoia'' won the [[Griffin Poetry Prize]] in 2002.<ref>[https://www.britannica.com/art/Griffin-Poetry-Prize Griffin Prize and Winners] Britannica, 2017, Retrieved 16/04/18</ref>

Bök's poem "Vowels" was used in the lyrics of a song on the EP ''[[A Quick Fix of Melancholy]]'' (2003) by the Norwegian band [[Ulver]].{{citation needed|date=April 2018}}

In 2006, Christian Bök and his work were the subject of an episode of the television series ''[[Heart of a Poet]]'', produced by Canadian filmmaker [[Maureen Judge]].<ref>[http://heartofapoet.ca/episodes.html#NAME Heart of a Poet: Season 1] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100213030603/http://heartofapoet.ca/episodes.html#NAME |date=February 13, 2010 }}</ref>

On May 31, 2011, The [[BBC World Service]] broadcast Bök reading "The Xenotext."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p00gvpkk/The_Strand_31_05_2011/ |title=BBC iPlayer - The Strand: 31/05/2011 |publisher=Bbc.co.uk |accessdate=2012-01-14}}</ref>

== Bibliography ==
* ''[[Crystallography (book)|Crystallography]]''. Coach House (1994) {{ISBN|978-1-55245-119-9}}
* ''[[Eunoia (book)|Eunoia]]''. Coach House Books (2001) {{ISBN|1-55245-092-9}} - winner of the 2002 Canadian [[Griffin Poetry Prize]]
* ''Pataphysics: The Poetics of an Imaginary Science''. Northwestern University Press (2001) {{ISBN|978-0-8101-1876-8}} - See [[’Pataphysics]]
* ''The Xenotext (Book 1)''. Coach House Books (2015) {{ISBN|978-1-55245-321-6}}
*''The Kazimir Effect.'' Penteract Press (2021) ISBN 978-1-913421-11-3

;As editor
* ''Ground Works: Avante-Garde for Thee'' (2003) {{ISBN|978-0-88784-180-4}}

;Included in
* ''Poetry Plastique'' (2001) {{ISBN|978-1-887123-51-8}}
* ''The Griffin Poetry Prize Anthology : A Selection of the 2002 Shortlist'' (2002) {{ISBN|978-0-88784-676-2}}

==See also==
{{Portal|Poetry|Biography|Canada|Ontario}}
* [[List of Canadian writers]]
* [[List of Canadian poets]]
* [[Concrete poetry]]
* [[Sound poetry]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
* [http://www.ubu.com/contemp/bok/index.html Christian Bök pages on UbuWeb, including recordings, poetry, and essays]
* [https://twitter.com/christianbok Christian Bök on Twitter]
* [http://www.griffinpoetryprize.com/awards-and-poets/shortlists/2002-shortlist/christian-bok/ Griffin Poetry Prize biography]
* [http://www.griffinpoetryprize.com/see-and-hear-poetry/a-g/christian-bok/ Griffin Poetry Prize reading, including video clip]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20071029172028/http://www.english.ucalgary.ca/ChristianBok University of Calgary Faculty of English profile]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20090615080706/http://archives.chbooks.com/online_books/eunoia/ Eunoia online book]
* [http://eclipsearchive.org/projects/BAZAAR/ "Bazaar of the Bizarre: The Book of Horrors"] - Christian Bök's first publication
* [http://www.cbc.ca/andsometimesy/pastshows.html?lastseason Christian Bök interview and reading] on CBC Radio program ''[[And Sometimes Y]]'', episode 5, July 25, 2006
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110721023359/http://webcast.univ-paris3.fr/podcasts/conferences/Entr%C3%A9es/2008/6/1_Voice_%26_Vision_%3A_Christian_B%C3%B6k_%28I%29.html Podcasts recorded at the Institut du Monde Anglophone, Université Paris 3 – Sorbonne Nouvelle, on May 22, 2008]
*[https://archive.today/20130101060253/http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poet/christian-bok.html Christian Bök] at [[University of Toronto Libraries]]
*[http://atom.archives.sfu.ca/index.php/christian-bok-fonds Records of Christian Bök are held by Simon Fraser University's Special Collections and Rare Books]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bok, Christian}}
[[Category:1966 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:York University alumni]]
[[Category:Carleton University alumni]]
[[Category:Academic staff of the University of Calgary]]
[[Category:Poets from Toronto]]
[[Category:20th-century Canadian poets]]
[[Category:20th-century Canadian male writers]]
[[Category:Canadian male poets]]
[[Category:21st-century Canadian poets]]
[[Category:21st-century Canadian male writers]]
[[Category:Visual poets]]