Christian Bök, born in Toronto, Canada, in 1966, combines language games and entertainment in wonderful ways. His books Chrystallography and Eunoia are poetic experiments in “clear writing” and “fine thinking”, with the latter collection bringing him the renowned Griffin Poetry Prize as well as being Canada’s best-selling poetry book. Bök continues the experimentation of concrete and sound poetry, doing homage to their great figures not only in his own texts but also in performances of classics such as Kurt Schwitters’ Ursonate.
He was also able to indulge his playfulness in his work for two television series for which he invented artificial languages, and in his conceptual art works – his books made of Rubik’s cubes and Lego bricks were most recently on show in the Poetry Plastique exhibition in New York. Bök is also Associate Professor for English Literature at the University of Calgary.
Publications (a selection):
Crystallography (Kristallographie) (Coach House Press 1994/2003)
Eunoia (Coach House Books 2001)
Pataphysics: The Poetics of an Imaginary Science (Northwestern University Press 2001)