User:Zychios

Biography

Born into a modest farming family in the Eure department, he was the first in his family to obtain a post-baccalaureate degree. He spent his childhood and teenage years in Pont-Audemer in Normandy.

On 31 December 1980, shortly after starting his preparatory classes in literature (Hypokhâgne) at the Lycée Chaptal in Paris, Christophe Lamiot Enos was involved in a serious car accident that left him with a permanent disability. He spent the next three years in hospital. This event marked a turning point in his life and strengthened his interest in writing and research in the humanities. He then resolved his desire to place reading and writing at the center of his life and the lives of others, with rigour and generous enthusiasm, focused on others.

In order to distance himself from his older sister, who was responsible for the accident mentioned above, as well as from his parents, whom he believed were in denial about her responsibility and the consequences of his disability, he left to teach in Northern Ireland for a year as a language assistant from 1983 to 1984.

After completing a Master's degree in English Studies at Paris X-Nanterre University (1984-1985), he left Europe for the United States, where he taught French literature for fourteen years at Cornell University, Berkeley in California, and then Rutgers in New Jersey. During the first seven years of his American era, he continued to be a student. In 1988, he obtained a doctorate in English Studies from Paris X-Nanterre for a thesis entitled "Le temps dans la nouvelle de Frank O’Connor". It was the first thesis submitted to the university to have been written using a computer. In 1992, he graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a PhD in French literature.

In 1999, he returned to Europe to follow up on his first book of poetry published by Flammarion: "Des pommes et des oranges".

Since 2002, he has been a lecturer at the University of Rouen and lives in Paris. In 2014, he received recognition as a disabled worker and, since 2019, has been provided with appropriate services on the Mont-Saint-Aignan campus.^[1],^[2],^[3].

Publications

His publications began in the United States of America in 1988 with "Two Poems" in the poetry journal The Berkeley Poetry Review.

In 1991, he published an article for Visions critiques, la nouvelle de langue anglaise at La Sorbonne Nouvelle (Paris). This was followed by contributions to journals (Callaloo, The Romanic Review, Po&sie, Bulletin des études valéryennes, Revue des sciences humaines), collective works and a dictionary.

From 1995, he published poems in Le nouveau recueil, Théodore Balmoral, Po&sie, Europe, Action poétique, Contre-allées, Neige d’août, Cahiers critiques de poésie, Sarrazine, Les Carnets d’Eucharis, as well as short notes for The French Review from 1993 to 1999, South Atlantic Review and Le nouveau recueil (Gérard Bucher, Ariane Dreyfus, James Sacré).

Two essays published in 1997 and 1999, "Water on Water" by Rodopi (Amsterdam) and "Littérature et hôpital" by Sciences en Situation (Paris) heralded several stories in verse, such as "Des pommes et des oranges", "Sitôt Elke", "Albany", "1985-1981" and "Viges" (Flammarion). In these stories, English and French are intertwined. Other stories in measured verse, most often rhyming or based on assonance, are published by Contre-Allées, Passage d'encres, Rehauts, L'Amandier, LansKine and Tarabuste, among others, and punctuate his editorial career.

En 2013, paraît au Royaume-Uni un ouvrage en anglais, "The Sun Brings" (Corrupt Press) sur la tentative de sauver sa mère alors aux portes de la mort.

In his verse narratives, Christophe Lamiot Enos seeks to circumscribe periods precisely located in time and space. Each text thus highlights a particular sequence, first approached from a factual angle, then considered for the attention or memory it may evoke. Added to this informative dimension is an ethical or linguistic reflection, taken from seemingly ordinary everyday elements.^[4],^[5],^[6].

Presses Universitaires de Rouen et du Havre (PURH)

From 2013 to 2024, he was an editor for Presses Universitaires de Rouen et du Havre (PURH), for which he created and directed a collection of contemporary American and French poetry that now includes more than forty volumes. Entitled « To », in reference to American objectivist poets such as George Oppen, this collection is not aimed exclusively at an academic audience, but targets a wider readership. It thus stands out in the contemporary French academic publishing landscape.

Among the authors whose unpublished works he has published are Alice Notley and Jerome Rothenberg. The « To » collection offers a French or English translation alongside the volume in the original language. The attention paid to translation by the « To » collection echoes Christophe Lamiot Enos' work as a translator, notably for the magazine Dans la lune (Tinqueux, Centre culturel pour l'enfance, 2007-2008), then for Corti Editions, where he translated texts by Gertrude Stein. He also sees the poetic gesture as a form of translation, consisting of transposing an experience or an inner feeling to others through language, possibly in multiple forms.

Critical studies concerning Christophe Lamiot Enos

From Stéphane Bouquet's article published in Libération in 2001^[7] to Djamel Meskache's article in Triages magazine in 2024^[8], via comments by Emmanuel Laugier, Lionel Destremau, Armelle Leclercq and Ariane Dreyfus^[9],^[10],^[11],^[12],^[13],^[14], Christophe Lamiot Enos' writing has been the subject of commentary highlighting, in particular, his attention to detail, formal rigour, the musical dimension of his texts, and his work on memory, in connection with his own amnesia.

The two manifestos that Christophe Lamiot Enos delivered for the « To » collection prompted comments from Thierry Roger for one, and from Caroline Andriot-Saillant for the other.^[15],^[16].

Christophe Lamiot Enos's poetics, understood as a link between lived experience and writing, can be defined as follows: using material based on personal experience — whether dreams, visions or everyday life — he aims to make elements that have remained hidden or neglected, perceptible and readable, as close to reality as possible. This approach is intended to highlight them and pass them as a legacy for future generations. For Christophe Lamiot Enos, living without writing in this way is not living fully.

Christophe Lamiot Enos is interested in American poetry concerned with Middle Eastern or Eastern spirituality (Laynie Browne, Amy Hollowell, Hank Lazer, Norman Fischer, Rodger Kamenetz), an immersion in the anthropology of indigenous peoples (Jerome Rothenberg) and linguistic expression as rebellion, particularly political (Bruce Andrews and Charles Bernstein, Joe Ross, Lee Ann Brown, Alice Notley, Lily Robert-Foley).

Distinctions

In 2002, Christophe Lamiot Enos was one of the authors featured on the double CD released by Le Temps qu'il fait, recorded by Valérie Rouzeau^[17].

In 2005, he recorded a CD for La Maison de la Poésie in Nantes, at the Pannonica theatre and jazz club in the same city.

Christophe Lamiot Enos has also been honoured with grants from the National Book Center (Centre natonal du libre), a writing residency in Pierrefitte in Seine-Saint-Denis, preparatory work for the cultural establishment « le 104 » in the 19th arrondissement for the Paris City Council, and active participation in Mathias Vincenot's Concèze festival^[18],^[19].

As a member of the Société des Gens de Lettres since his arrival in France in 1999, he conceived and organised the first poetry reading evening with Sylvestre Clancier^[20]. He was then elected member of the Board and Treasurer of the Maison des Écrivains et de la Littérature de Paris.

In 2023, at the request of poet and publisher Francis Combes, he testified before the National Assembly in favour of independent publishing houses. His poems have appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies, both in France ("La Poésie française pour les nuls" by Jean-Joseph Julaud ^[21] and "Un nouveau monde" by Yves di Manno and Isabelle Garron ^[22]) and abroad ("New European Poets", Graywolf Press, Saint Paul, Minnesota).

He has led numerous writing workshops around the world (United States, France, particularly in Évreux, where he worked with Martial Maynadier from the Le Parc association and participated in activities organised by Les Turbulents Autistes, led by Philippe Duban in Paris;  Spain, Poland for Ukrainian refugee women and children under the aegis of director Inna Dulerayn). He also gives public readings, including a series entitled "Comment la poésie m’a sauvé la vie" (How poetry saved my life) at Les Pianos de Montreuil starting in 2023.

His interest in visual arts is evident in his participation in the « livres pauvres » initiated by Daniel Leuwers, such as "Elle qui" (She who), with Philippe Hélénon in the « vice versa » collection, or the mask reproduced in the book "Richesses du livre pauvre" (Gallimard, 2008).^[23].

Miscellaneous

• France Culture, interview with Alain Veinstein for « Actualité de la poésie », broadcast on 21th April 2003
• Radio Alternantes, interview with Michel Sourget and Laurent Mareschal, for « Les Draps dans les mots », october 2005
• France Culture, interview with Omar Berrada, may 2006
• France Culture, interview with Manou Farine : https://www.radiofrance.fr/franceculture/podcasts/poesie-et-ainsi-de-suite/poesie-et-memoire-6956687
• Interviw for Radio Télévision Suisse with David Christoffel et Amy Hollowell
• Numerous recordings for the annual international study day based on the « To » collection at PURH, including https://webtv.univ-rouen.fr/videos/07-bilan-de-la-journee-sous-la-forme-dune-table-ronde-inclusive/
• Artistic dossier published in NU(e) magazine in March 2025 containing critical texts by Yves Boudier and James Sacré ^[24]

Sources and references