The Icelandic Literary Prize 2012 was awarded at the presidential residence Bessastaðir on February 6, In the category of fiction and poetry Eiríkur Örn Norðdahl received the prize for his novel Illska (lit. Evil), published by Mál og Menning. The nonfiction award went out to the historian Gunnar F. Guðmundsson for Pater Jón Sveinsson – [...]
For three euros you can be the proud owner of 30 sound poems (which comes to a whooping ten cents a piece), written, composed and performed by me, Eiríkur Örn Norðdahl. For four euros more you can get a physical CD (home-burned with a nice cover) – including delivery costs. The CD features a series [...]
Booby, Be Quiet! is a collection of essays and columns about poetry, literature and literary politics(the title is a very learnéd reference to Auden’s translation of the Eddas). The essays and columns have been published in various places in the last five years – around half of the book consists of material written for The [...]
Dear friends. Next saturday I will be participating in the Zebra Poetry Film Festival schedule at the Gothenburg book fair. The Zebra crew will play some of last year’s films, including my Höpöhöpö Böks, and me and Maria Silkeberg (who also has a film in the program) will be reading some poems. But the Gothenburg [...]
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May 6, 2011 in (a bit) longer essays, Articles, The Grapevine
- the search for literary crisis (Practically) all political writing engages in representation and a form of adjudication – i.e. “picking a side”. Classic social realist writing of capitalist societies not only represents the exploited classes, but furthermore represents them against their mortal enemy, the bourgeoise classes; nationalist literature not [...]
March 11, 2011 in Articles, The Grapevine
The most important thing to keep in mind during a fistfight (or while writing a poem) isn’t what to do with your arms and knuckles, but where to place your feet. If you keep them too close together, you’re liable to fall over – and if you keep them too [...]
February 15, 2011 in The Grapevine
Municipal decree stardate 01012021-001 — January 1st, 2021. State anarcho-surreo-separatist municipality of central Laugavegur and the united TGIFs of the greater eurafrican kingdom. Citizens of love and the Tao! I beseech you! Hark, hark! Hear, here! Lo, lo! Whiff! Feel! Taste! Orgasm! I write you now to say: Another decade [...]
December 16, 2010 in Articles, The Grapevine
Each year, for about eight weeks, Icelandic book culture loses its cool and turns into a crazed media circus. When the clock strikes ‘october’ literature suddenly gets two-handedly drowned, literally strangled, with attention – having been mostly ignored or patronizingly shrugged off for the previous 43 weeks of the year [...]
December 5, 2010 in Articles, The Grapevine
Oh, alright, I’ll admit it: I don’t understand most poetry. It baffles me. I read it, shaking my head and scowling. I don’t even understand my own poetry. Objectively speaking, most of it’s just nonsense – like how many ‘P’s or ‘S’s can I fit into a sentence? How about [...]
October 23, 2010 in Articles, The Grapevine
When this text is eventually published the world will know who received the 2010 Nobel Prize for Literature. It will have been announced yesterday. The person in question will already be lauded worldwide, in today’s newspapers next Friday, with a few dissenting voices perhaps mentioning cultural politics and even fewer [...]
October 3, 2010 in Articles, The Grapevine
Anything an author does (or says) is viable to be used as evidence against (or for) her (or him). Their actions and words are commonly seen as shedding an invaluable light on the work they’ve given the world – and to a certain extent this is of course true. It’s [...]
September 25, 2010 in (a bit) longer essays, Articles
– the sound and the fury Talk given at the Sound Poetry Seminar in Kuopio, Finland, 4 September 2010. I I tend to write three general kinds of poetry which I keep more or less separated in the writing practice, although the borders tend to blur before publication. First there’s [...]
September 22, 2010 in Articles, The Grapevine
Poetry is the art of the illogical, or even anti-intellectual, performed with the tools of logic and intellectual zealotry: language. Poetry is an invoker of feeling, or more correctly, perhaps, sensation and/or experience – while simultaneously being a way of thinking, of “catching yourself thinking” and “noticing what you notice” [...]
September 11, 2010 in Articles, The Grapevine
A few days ago (the rather awful) writer’s magazine Writer’s Digest tweeted the following: “Free short story competition to raise awareness for those suffering from depression”. Followed by an url. Now, being the cold-hearted asshole I am, this made me chuckle. I’m sorry for it, I truly am – I [...]
