Fortino Samano, aka the Motorcycling Haikuist, hit the stage at Open Mic 15 with five new poems in Cypriot that scholars feel may signal a turning point in Samano’s career.

Two weeks ago Sofia Imas performed this original song at Open Mic 13 and blew us all away. The recording is raw and unplugged, which is just the way we like it.

Think The Noun Project meets the punk absurdity of Sam Pink and you'd have an inkling of what this funky new, Nicosia-based project is about.

Lefki Savvidou aka “Lé Boob” lives in a country just outside Deftera, Cyprus. It’s surrounded by cactuses and fig trees and its government is art: drawings and tattoos mostly.

Saving Mah Bacon by 11-year-old Slava Makarov is a fast-paced adventure involving a nameless wanderer, a bunch of zombies and a "small load of one million pieces of bacon". 

Μιλήσαμε με τη συγγραφέα, δημοσιογράφο και ψυχολόγο Δήμητρα Διδαγγέλου για το πώς ξεκίνησε να γράφει, πώς η εκφραστική γραφή την έχει βοηθήσει και πώς η οικονομική κρίση στην Ελλάδα έχει αλλάξει το συγγραφικό σκηνικό.

It's been over a year in the making, with a few bumps along the way, but Electra Michaelidou's story, Steel Punch, is the most exciting Comic Book Project launch of 2017.

George Tardios still speaks the same Cypriot he was speaking when he was seven, the day he visited his grandmother for the first time in Varosha in 1951 and she promised to will him her brothel.

We're back at Comic Con with three new issues and three reprints. Find out more about Cyprus's local comic book scene and how you can get involved inside.

Ο Γιώργος Κιτής εργάζεται στο χώρο του marketing τα τελευταία 12 χρόνια. Τώρα τον μαθαίνουμε και ως συγγραφέα, αφού έχει γράψει το πρώτο του μυθιστόρημα. Φυσικά τον γνωρίζαμε από προηγουμένως αφού είχε παρακολουθήσει ένα μάθημα διηγηματογραφίας από την Ελένη Ξένου, στο Write CY.

Listen to Christiana Nicolaides rip a hole out of Open Mic 8 with this brutally honest poem. 

Βρέσιε. Οι σταγόνες ππέφτουν πάνω στον τσίγκον όπως τες πελλές. Υπό άλλες συνθήκες εν να μου άρεσκεν πολλά να τες ακόυω. Τωρά όμως πελλανίσκουν με.

Listen to Sophia Archontis channel her 6-year-old self in this runaway performance of Open Mic Night 8-cum-cautionary tale.

Dump is an angry T-Rex with a tiny brain and hands who has made himself King of Dinosaur Land. When Dump kicks all the other dinosaurs out of Dinosaur Land to create more jobs and food, Dinosaur Land becomes a very boring place.

Mr. Samano returns to the stage with six more original Cypriot haikouthkia. Will he ever run out?

Είχα το παραμύθιν στα σιέρκα μου δκυο μέρες πριν το Open Mic Night. Ο Μιχαήλ Άγγελος θα απουσίαζε τζ’ επέλεξεν με για να δκιαβάσω ‘κάτι που έγραψεν’.

Evdokia Charalampous sort of snuck up on me with these two short poems, both previously published in the UK, that take potentially nostalgic or melodramatic life moments and just cut to the quick in completely original, exquisitely nuanced language.

Max Sheridan performs flash fiction about a man with an eccentric wife who leaves him for a birthday magician.

Andri Loizides tells us what it feels like to jump from a cliff...and land.

2016, we'd probably all agree, is a good contender for the King of Shitty Years. It was the year Donald Trump got elected and David Bowie died, and playing on the TV day and night, ever-present as static on a busted TV, Aleppo was burning. 

Listen to paleofuturist Alexis Karkotis channel the spirits of Philip K. Dick and William Burroughs (and, yes, even Telly Savalas) in this hybrid fever dream/lament for the good old pre-digital days of Kojak and blood-and-bone hummingbirds.

Fortino Samano is back with 6 more original haikouthkia on beloved Cypriot themes ranging from lizards to motores.

Η Λέσχη Δημιουργικής Γραφής είναι ένας ασφαλής χώρος για οποιονδήποτε γράφει ή θέλει να ξεκινήσει να γράφει. Αποτελείται από καθημερινούς ανθρώπους, που τους αρέσκει το γράψιμο. 

5 first-time scriptwriters pitching their first scripts, 3 local producers looking for their next film. We had our first pitching session at Write CY and it was magic.

I really wanted to begin this post like this: I almost got hit on the head with a sandwich walking to work the other day. So I think I will. Because it explains why I invested €17 in a trash can today.

A gallery of the storytellers and poets of Open Mic Night 5 by photographer Dasha Guliaieva.

Cypriot celebrity haiku artist Fortino Samano is caught live at Open Mic Night 5 at Prozak Kafeneio on 19 OCT, 2016.