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Black Orchids And White Spaces: Vónbjørt Vang On Winning The Nordic Council Prize For Literature
“Nobody’s going to read it,” Faroese writer Vónbjørt Vang told herself as she began to write the poems that would become Svørt Orkidé, meaning black orchid. “Just me and my tutor and some examination people,” she assumed, “and maybe my closest friends…
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An Assortment Of Good Reads
One US-based writer’s take Want to deepen your relationship with Icelandic literature in English translation but don’t know where to start? We’ve asked US-based professor of literature, Jenna Grace Sciuto, what she’d suggest. No journey into Iceland’s lush literary landscape would be…
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Decentralising The Literary Scene
The first of its kind, Flateyri Literary Festival brought the scene to the Westfjords “I am very risk-taking,” writer Helen Hafgnýr Cova tells me over the phone. “If I have an idea, I just go for it. I have never organised a…
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Sjón Criticises J.K. Rowling On Twitter
Writer and poet Sjón took aim at “Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling on Twitter Wednesday for her hate speech directed towards trans people. Rowling has been vocal in her views on transgender rights, voicing transphobic opinions on her social media. Sjón pointed…
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Trailer For ‘The Northman’, Featuring Björk And Sjón, Makes A Splash
Robert Eggers, director of both The Witch and The Lighthouse, has more surprises in store with his latest venture, The Northman. [su_pullquote]Need a Christmas present pronto? Get the Iceland lover in your life a Grapevine online shop gift voucher, or a High…
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Panda Posthumously Awarded Palm Dog At Cannes
Panda, an Icelandic border collie and cast member of recent Valdimar Jóhannsson film, Dýrið, was awarded the Grand Jury Prize for Palm Dog, an alternative award for dogs in film at the Cannes festival. As Panda died in March of this year,…
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Valdimar Jóhannsson Film, Dýrið, Well Received At Cannes
Icelandic film director Valdimar Jóhannsson’s latest film, Dýrið, has been receiving much buzz at Cannes. The drama, written by Sjón and Valdimar Jóhannsson, stars Noomi Rapace and Hilmir Snær Guðnason as a couple who come face-to-face with the supernatural. “Dýrið,” meaning “The…
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Björk To Play Witch In Sjón’s Upcoming Viking Film
Björk Guðmundsdóttir is set to play a witch in the upcoming Viking film The Northman, RÚV reports. The film will star the brothers Bill and Alexander Skarsgård and Hollywood stars Willem Dafoe and Nicole Kidman, amongst others. Sjón wrote the screenplay together…
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The Grapevine Bookclub: Sperm Banks And Erotic Sheep
Driving the Ring Road means a lot of downtime in the car. Pick up one of these books to enrich your mind while you get those kilometres in. LoveStar By Andri Snær Magnason, 2013 If you are an Icelander and have already…
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‘Öræfi’ And ‘CoDex 1962’ Nominated For BTBA Best Translated Book Award
Two Icelandic novels are nominated for this year’s Best Translated Book Award. The longlist for the award was announced this week by online magazine The Millions. The books in question are ‘Öræfi: The Wasteland’ by Ófeigur Sigurðsson, translated by Lytton Smith and…
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What’s The Matter, Don’t You Speak Greek?: Anne Carson Returns To Reykjavík
Literary fame is a finicky kind of fame. A writer can have raving reviews in the New York Times, The Guardian, The New Yorker, and more; she can win slews of major literary honors, and teach at big name universities, and yet…
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Get Your Read On: Sjón & Jón Gnarr
A couple of modern classics that you can pick up translated to English at a good Amazon website near you. Jón Gnarr – The Pirate In this second volume of comedian and former mayor of Reykjavík Jón Gnarr’s bleakly hysterical autobiographical writing,…
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Sjón & Jón Kalman Among Likely Nobel Prize Winners
Tomorrow, the winner of the 2017 Nobel Prize in literature will be announced and according to bookies our very own Sjón and Jón Kalman Stefánsson are among the favourites, reports RÚV. Swedish bookies have placed the two in the tenth and eleventh…
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Get Your Read On: Out Of The Blue & The Flatey Enigma
There’s probably at least one sunny day left in this grey Icelandic summer. Here are a few ideas for things you could read while lolling around in the park. Helen Mitsios ed. – Out of the Blue: New Short Fiction from Iceland…
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RVK In NYC: Icelandic Literature In The US
This month, a new collection of Icelandic short fiction entitled ‘Out of the Blue’ was published by the University of Minnesota Press. The collection gathers together short stories in translation by twenty modern Icelandic authors, with a foreword by Sjón. An event…
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Icelandic Literature In 2016: The Complete Grapevine Guide
This article was printed as the introduction to our December 2016 edition: The Literature Issue. You can use the links to explore our articles on Iceland’s literature scene. Iceland is, famously, a literary country. Deprived of the means to create music or…
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Get Your Read On: Where To Start In The Icelandic Book Store
For the unacquainted, it can be hard to know where to start with Icelandic literature. Should you begin with a weighty medieval saga—and if so, which one? Should it be a Laxness tome? Maybe a slim volume of concise, lyrical fiction by…
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Second Sight: A Conversation With Sjón
“I write as little as possible,” says Sjón, with a barely perceptible smile and a twinkle in his eye. “In fact, I do everything I can to avoid actual writing.” When he issues this joking-not-joking statement, we’re sitting in a comfortable coffee…
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Sjón To The Future: Do You Read Me?
In 2014, Scottish artist Katie Paterson launched a 100-year art project called The Future Library. One writer a year, starting in 2014, will contribute a written work, which will then go into a trust, until all 100 are published together as an…
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Sjón Takes Part In “Future Library” Project
Award-winning Icelandic author Sjón is the third writer to add his work to the “Future Library” project, where it will lay unread along with 99 others until the start of next century. This autumn, Scottish artist and author of the project Katie Paterson invited Sjón to…
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Join Iceland’s Bedroom Community This Airwaves
Bedroom Community is often referred to as Iceland’s best record label. Based in label founder Valgeir Sigurðsson’s Greenhouse Studios in Brieðhólt, and built from the work a small group of experimental, often groundbreaking artists, the label puts out a varied range of…
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Iceland Writers Retreat Redux
Going into its second year, the Iceland Writers Retreat—which, armchair copyeditors take note, is purposely “apostrophe free”—is riding high on the success of its inaugural event. Having already hosted such literary luminaries as Geraldine Brooks and Susan Orlean, organizers Eliza Reid and…
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Contents Of Björk’s MoMA Show Revealed
More details of Björk’s MoMA exhibition have been released, including a tantalising trailer. The video shows an excerpt from a performance of ‘Black Lake’ in which Björk lies, gushing dark liquid from a chest wound. The exhibition – which marks the first…