Reykjavík Grapevine - 24.08.2018, Page 23

23 The Reykjavík GrapevineIssue 15— 2018
Crowds gather to listen to poetry,
cram into tiny spaces to attend poetry
evenings and queue to receive a poem
to go. Large collections of poetry by
established writers are published
alongside new poets’ chapbooks and
the demand for poetry seems to be as
steady as ever. Smaller, independent
publishing houses, such as Partus
Press and Tunglið, contribute to the
poetry market in equal measure as
long-established publisher Forlagið.
Both young and old voices join a
conversation which is no longer led
by only a few well-known writers. Yet
it seems that the current Icelandic
poetry scene is at a crossroads and
its future can go in one of two direc-
tions—remain as vibrant as it is at the
moment, or else slowly decline, waiting
for yet another generation to follow.
THE BEGINNINGS
It all began in the winter of 2011, when
the main grassroots publisher of
poetry at that time, Nýhil, collapsed.
Kári Tulinius, Sveinbjörg Bjarna-
dóttir and Valgerður Þóroddsdóttir
subsequently decided to start a poetry
chapbook series called Meðgön-
guljóð, roughly translated as ‘Take-
away poetry,’ in 2012 to fill the void.
“At the time, there was really noth-
ing happening in poetry for young
people,” remembers Valgerður. She and
Kári wrote a first chapbook together,
yet there was no opportunity to publish
their collaboration. “We didn’t have
any options, so we just thought, ‘let’s
try this.’” Their collaboration became
the first in the chapbook series. “It
just really hit the spot, it filled some
specific void and the reaction we
got from the community was over-
whelmingly positive,” says Valgerður.
Moving on to bigger projects
One idea behind Meðgönguljóð was
to give all kinds of poetry a platform
and to enable new poets to publish
their poems. Since its start in 2012, the
Meðgönguljóð series has included the
works of around 30 poets, many of them
now moving on to bigger projects. In
2015, Valgerður founded Partus Press,
which subsequently took over publi-
cation of the poetry chapbook series.
One of Partus’ poets is Fríða Ísberg,
a 25-year-old writer who published her
first collection of poetry with them.
“My poems were originally planned to
be published as part of the chapbook
series. When I got the chance to work
on a longer manuscript as my final
project for the MA course in creative
writing at the University of Iceland,
Partus decided to give it a chance as
a bigger project,” Fríða says. It was at
that time that Valgerður decided to
make Partus into a full-grown publish-
ing house and Fríða’s book was the
press’ first full length poetry collection.
WHOLE RANGE
OF POETRY
“Since we started, so much has changed
that it's hard to even remember what it
was like before,” says Valgerður. Sigrún
Ása Sigmarsdóttir, who had her chap-
book “Siffon Og Damask” published
this year, says that “the difference
to how it was before Meðgönguljóð
is that the poetry scene is now open
to everybody. You’re free to express
yourself in a more carefree way, with-
out the pressure of being perfect.”
Sigrún, who is 61-years-old, says
that when she was in her twenties,
she felt you’d have to do what she
calls “serious poetry” to be accepted
or be able to call yourself a poet.
Fríða describes the new generation of
poets as more “sincere, introspective
and emotional” than others before.
“If I had to characterise it, I would
say that the generation of poets
active right now is a bit less ironic
than the one that came before it,”
Valgerður says. “However, I’m reluc-
tant to say that the poets work-
ing today really belong to any one
group, I think they’re all doing vastly
different things,” she emphasises.
Meðgönguljóð, in particular, was
always meant to “capture a wide range
of voices”, she explains. “The chap-
book series is really diverse in terms
of approaches, it probably covers
more styles than Partus will be able
to accommodate going forward,” she
adds. Precisely this openness to diver-
sity enabled older, yet new poets like
Sigrún to become part of the poetry
scene and express their voice. “It
was really helpful for me that Partus
was open to giving older poets like
myself a chance,” she says. However,
she says she would like to hear from
more new poets her age – “I’ve had
really good responses from women
my age who would like to publish
their poetry but thought they were
too old; so hopefully I inspire them to
follow their own dreams,” she says.
Trendy poetry and cool poets
Iceland has, of course, always had
a rather vibrant literary scene and
while the novel with its successful
history—ranging from the famous
Sagas to Nobel Prize winner Halldór
Laxness—has undoubtedly left its
mark on the island, Icelandic poetry
can certainly also boast a glorious past.
“Iceland has a strong poetic tradi-
tion, which plays a part in making poetry
a desirable artform. Also, many of our
most prominent historical figures
were, among other things, poets. So
poets have persisted in the national
consciousness as heroes, of a sort.
Anti-heroes perhaps,” says Valgerður.
“They tend to be romanticised as
rebellious outsiders, which I think
has contributed to a specific notion
of 'coolness' about poetry in Iceland.”
“Poetry is certainly a trend right
now,” confirms Fríða. “People our age
think about a young person when they
think about a typical poet, not the stereo-
typical middle-aged man,” she says.
“People project masculine ideas
onto what a poet is or should be,” adds
Valgerður. “This is something I've been
aware of from the start and am very
consciously working against. I feel it's
my responsibility as a publisher to do
what I can to change this idea,” she says.
Kári Tulinius, co-founder of
Meðgönguljóð and internation-
ally successful poet, says that while
“previous generations were heav-
ily male-dominated, the current
trend has been towards equality.”
That trend has not
started overnight, though.
“We’ve always had great female
poets that have been arousing young
women’s as well as young men’s
“THE GENERATION OF POETS RIGHT
NOW IS A LITTLE LESS SELF-CONSCIOUS
AND IRONIC AND MAYBE A BIT MORE
EMOTIONAL AND EMBARRASSINGLY RAW.”
Words:
Noemi Ehrat
Illustrations:
Elín Elisabet
Photos:
Art Bicnick
Kári Túlinius Photo:
Martin Diegelman
POETRY IN THE NOW
A WIDE
RANGE
OF
VOICES BERGÞÓRA SNÆBJÖRNSDÓTTIR