Award this!
A few years ago the Icelandic poetry world was rocked by a tectonic scandal that nobody noticed for weeks (and by now, everyone’s forgotten about). The country’s most prestigious poetry award, Ljóðstafur Jóns úr Vör, was given to the wrong poet. A young man from one of Reykjavík’s neighbouring towns was called up and... »
New News (stuff, essays)
First: Mind the Sound, writings about the 17th century Icelandic nonsense/sound-poet Æri-Tobbi and my own work from his writing. Published in aslongasittakes and (in finnish translation) in Nuori Voima magazine. Second: Hay-grinder of the greenpeace-kitten earth-channels of the desert-asphalt sugar-free beach-found transparent salt-Coke – a column about ‘kenning’ metaphors in skaldic poetry. Published in... »
Mind the sound
I It may have been the year 1600 – on the dot – that a child was born in Iceland (probably) named Þorbjörn Þórðarson. Perhaps it was later though, it’s hard to tell. No one really knows. And I wouldn’t want to lie. You deserve the truth. And he may have smelled just as... »
Hay-grinder of the greenpeace-kitten earth-channels of the desert-asphalt sugar-free beach-found transparent salt-Coke
When modernism in poetry shocked its way through Europe in the beginning of the last century, people’s main concern was how the hell to understand it. The modernists would often build image upon image in ways that many readers found antagonizing – like oh so much posturing – and it was made new rather... »
Malmö, Tallinn, Helsinki, Akureyri etc.
This coming thursday I will be reading in Malmö, Sweden, along with finn-swedish poet Cia Rinne and the nestor of swedish concrete poetry, Bengt Emil Johnson, as well as the poetrygroup 3 Advokater. Malmö Litteraturbar Stanza – Inkonst.com 26.03.2009 – at 8 pm In spirit and likeness I will be in Akureyri, Iceland, on... »
#8 Ingibjörg Haraldsdóttir (1942-)
The Head of a Woman by Ingibjörg Haraldsdóttir ... »
An ocean in an archipelago of languages!
The people of Helsinki speak Finnish. Mostly. A minority speaks Swedish as a first language, but they all speak Finnish as well. So when you go to the grocery store, you speak Finnish. A lot of my friends – mostly through my wife – have French as a first language (my wife is a... »
#6 Kristín Ómarsdóttir (1962 – )
Icelandic National Poem This is my room, we call it Iceland. It’s chained to Europe with a marine cable and to and from here airplanes fly with their ink-cartridges full of people. Here I dwell in a matchbox that I care for so dearly since I painted the inner walls last winter. Life goes... »
Interview on Icelandic Poetry
Recently one Robin Vaughan-Williams contacted me with a few questions for an article he’s writing for a british poetry magazine. The answers I gave are here below – this is very much thinking aloud, as you’d answer in a spoken-word interview (although conducted through email), and I’ve not cleaned it much up at all.... »
Icelandic poets in English
I’ve been translating a few Icelandic poets into English lately – the series will eventually have 25 poets. These five are already up: Sigfús Daðason (1928 – 1996) Böðvar Guðmundsson (1939 – ) Þórunn Erlu-Valdimarsdóttir (1954 -) Anton Helgi Jónsson (1955 – ) Elísabet Jökulsdóttir (1958 – ) You can see the translations here.... »