Reykjavík Grapevine - 09.12.2016, Qupperneq 38

Books 38The Reykjavík GrapevineIssue 18 — 2016
Two years ago we printed a close
crop of Valgerður Þóroddsdót-
tir’s face on our cover. Imposed
over Vala’s decisive look were the
words: “The new face of literature.”
A couple years prior, she and Kári
Tulinius started Meðgönguljóð, an
independent poetry publisher. De-
spite Iceland’s well-known literary
culture, there was nothing quite
like it at the time. Meðgönguljóð
was crucially positioned to encour-
age the proliferation of poetry into
Iceland’s primed public.
Vala now runs Partus Press, an
umbrella company that she formed
which includes Meðgönguljóð’s
original network. Partus is cur-
rently Iceland’s largest publisher
of poetry and recently released
their first novel. The press’s first
English novel is slated to come out
next year. While we don’t disregard
the incredible richness of Iceland’s
literary past, it’s also good to keep
a firm gaze on the future. That’s
why we asked Vala for five writers
to watch.
Ásta Fanney Sigurðardóttir
Visual artist, musician, singer,
writer, and poet—Ásta is one of
those rare multi-talents whose
creative drive seems to know no
end. She is, deservedly, something
of a cult figure in Iceland, and has
inspired many monikers—to me,
she is the High Priestess of Icelan-
dic Poetry, but she is also the Eliot
to my Pound; her first draft of ‘The
Waste Land’ is due in my inbox at
any moment now.
Jónas Reynir Gunnarsson
Jónas has a certain sensibility and
sensitivity which I consider to be a
signpost of talent. His cleverness
and sense of humour also make
him quite versatile as a writer—
he’s the kind of person who excels
at writing projects of any kind:
poetry, prose, comics, scripts for
stage and TV, as well as the increas-
ingly important art of the internet
quip. I suspect he’ll be hugely in-
fluential, but unostentatiously so.
Arngunnur Árnadóttir
Hands down the best Icelandic
prose writer of my generation. Her
writing is clean as a bone; chill-
ingly emotionally precise. Both
her first book of poetry (‘Unglin-
gar’) and her first novel (‘Að hei-
man’) were well-executed and
well-received. As a writer, she has
impeccable taste; there is no ex-
cess, she knows exactly what works
and what doesn’t. A real pleasure
to read.
Elías Knörr
Elías is a revelation. His approach
to language is novel, unbounded,
confident. His manoeuvring of
Icelandic—which is a very formal
language with strict habits of us-
age—is eye-opening. He’s really
blown the lid off of something, I
think, ushering in a new era of pos-
sibilities for Icelandic poetry.
The Partus Press kids
My last pick has to be my babies—
the Partus poets. To keep with the
literary icon metaphors which
nobody asked for: if I’m Gertrude
Stein, in this bunch you’ll find
Picasso, Hemingway, Fitzgerald,
Matisse and the lot of them. If
you’re looking for clues as to what’s
up-and-coming in Icelandic litera-
ture, the Partus roster is the place
to look. It’s what we do.
SHARE: gpv.is/five18
Words VALGERÐUR ÞÓRODDSDÓTTIR Photo SOPHIE BUTCHER AND MARTIN DIEGELMAN
5 Writers to Watch
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