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 [...]
..
..
..
September 12, 2009 in Articles, The Grapevine, The New Illiterati
Lo, the oogly woogly wiggly toes of my puffinous pinkster!
Lo, the perpetual whirlpool of his gung ho rainbows!
Lo, the sabre-dancing jiggifunk of his eyeyeyeyeyes!
Behold his umpteen-breasted olympic warrior, mother-of-it-all, and recognize!
August 26, 2009 in The New Illiterati
I’ve just read some of your poetry and liked one line about the swastika in somebody’s nazi soup. All the rest strikes me as happily as receiving “GROW YOUR PENIS 3 INCHES LONGER AND THICKER” spam. I don’t have a penis, so haven’t the yearning to grow it longer and [...]
August 23, 2009 in Articles, The Grapevine, The New Illiterati
‘Twas the eve of Nýhils 2nd international poetry festival, late autumn 2006. I was the manager for the second year in a row. For some reason I can’t remember we didn’t have any microphones. The Norwegian poet, Gunnar Wærness, had misunderstood his flight-information and missed his flight. The Swedish poets [...]
August 14, 2009 in Articles, The Grapevine, The New Illiterati
Imagine a poem so robust and resourceful that it could survive humanity. Imagine that the Americans finally go completely bonkers and rip the globe apart with liberational glee, the nuclear dust finally settles and all that’s left of mankind is poetry. The mark of craftsmanship has always been durability. A [...]
July 21, 2009 in Articles, The Grapevine, The New Illiterati
I became a poet for more or less the same reason everybody else did: I’m lazy and I wanted to sleep late. That was the job description. You get to sleep late, drink late and most people won’t ever find out you’re stupid because what you do is beyond comprehension [...]
July 15, 2009 in News
Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Last monday night (July 13) I performed with Paul Dutton at the Scream Literary Festival Mainstage outside in the warm but comfortable summer evening (the days here are not as comfortable). Paul and I were doing an expanded repeat of last years performance and I for one [...]
July 6, 2009 in Articles, The Grapevine, The New Illiterati
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 [...]
June 22, 2009 in Articles, The Grapevine, The New Illiterati
As I may have mentioned before, poetry was (in Iceland) once considered a gift from God, the misuse of which could result in the loss of said gift. Thus 17th century poet Æri-Tobbi had his gift taken away for giving false directions (in verse) to a group of tourists (all [...]
June 11, 2009 in Articles, The Grapevine, The New Illiterati
Your language is somebody else’s property. Not only does it get dealt with in grammar books, by officials making official rules for how things can and cannot be – but everytime anybody gets a good idea for a phrasing, a metaphor, a pun or a pickup line sooner than later [...]
June 2, 2009 in Articles, The Grapevine, The New Illiterati
Anyone who gets a rudimentary education in the western world, or at least in the places I know anything about, is taught that poetry is like vitamins – it’s good for you. It’ll enlighten your mind, make you more aware of your emotions, your sensibilities, the entire scope of your [...]
