Focus on Iceland: The fanatic self-image
Yesterday I gave a speech at an Iceland conference in Helsinki. Amongst other speakers were Friðrik Andersen, bank manager at the Nordic Investment Bank, and Pekka Mäkinen, regional director for...
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Mayday in Helsinki
Pictures from April 30th and May 1st in Helsinki. The march on April 30th was a student march, mostly protesting new capitalist legislature, that’ll make foreigners pay tuition and centralizes power...
View ArticleHay-grinder of the greenpeace-kitten earth-channels of the desert-asphalt...
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...
View ArticleMind 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...
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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...
View ArticleTwo thousand krónur’s worth of freedom
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...
View ArticlePoetry – to the death!
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...
View ArticleAward 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,...
View ArticlePoetics Anonymous
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...
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Killing yourself with poetry
A poster for Nýhil's Poetry Parties - a tour around Iceland in 2003. ‘Twas the eve of Nýhils 2nd international poetry festival, late autumn 2006. I was the manager for the second year in a row. For...
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