Reykjavík Grapevine - 08.11.2019, Síða 32

32The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 20— 2019
Rin!in! In The
Residency
Québec author Chantal Rin!uet takes
up residence in Gröndalshús
Words: a rawlings Photo: Lára A!alsteinsdóttir
UNESCO City of Literature
Writer-in-Residence
Inaugural Reykjavík residency hosts
Chantal Ringuet
“What if the trees were looking
at us instead of as human beings
in the Anthropocene looking at
the environment?” asks Chantal
Ringuet. She is the first Reykjavík
UNESCO City of Literature writer-
in-residence and spent the month
of October in Gröndalshús.
Chantal’s question situates her
well for a stay in the vaunted his-
torical home of Benedikt Gröndals,
whose own literature about the
Icelandic environment positioned
him as a canonical writer. Bene-
dikt lived in Gröndalshús from
1888 to 1907. It was opened as a
writer’s museum in 2017 after
extensive renovations, including
an apartment for
short-stay residen-
cies.
The Reykjavík
U NESCO Cit y of
Literat ure Resi-
dency is an annual,
fully funded op-
portunity for an in-
ternational writer
to produce work in
Iceland. Reykjavík
UNESCO City of Lit-
erature advertised
their residency call
to other Cities of
Literature, intending to attract ap-
plicants with strong ties to those
cities. Chantal, who was born and
raised in Québec City, Canada, was
selected out of 60 applicants.
The write stuff
Reykjavík UNESCO City of Lit
erature project manager Kristín
Vi!arsdóttir explains, “We had a
lot of great applications so it was
a tough decision for the panel.
Chantal is working on a project on
what she calls ‘treelessness.’ We
found what she is working on very
current in today’s environmental
discussions.”
“Chantal has also been a trans-
lator from Yiddish to English and
French,” Kristín continues, “which
is a literary landscape that we
haven't seen here in Iceland. She
is an expert on Leonard Cohen.
There were many angles that made
her application stand out.”
Poetic odysseys
During Chantal’s residency, she
developed the third part of a poetic
odyssey. Her first book, ‘Le sang
des ruines’ (‘Blood of the ruins’),
focused on Holo-
caust survivors and
landscapes in ruins
after the Second
World War.
Her second po-
etry book, ‘Under
the skin of war’,
was inspired by
the photography
of photojournal-
ist Don McCullin.
“I thought that's
so interesting to
give voice to civil-
ian s trapped i n
war zones who cannot speak for
themselves,” Chantal comments.
“There is a kind of ethical dimen-
sion in Don’s work that I found
striking and important.”
Treelessness
The writer’s residency provided
Chantal with time to develop the
next stage of the odyssey. She
explains, “The narrative raises
important questions about hos-
pitality, the sense of exile, and be-
longing in our 21st century world.
We have arrived to another kind of
disaster caused by climate chang-
es. My idea is to rewrite some
founding narratives about treeless
landscapes.”
Chantal’s approach consid-
ers the non-human perspective
as central to the next book’s de-
velopment. “It raises important
questions about ecological issues,
about giving a voice to the trees
and forests and lakes who are also
the victims of disasters that we
created as humans.”
She, tree, story
“Chantal has been very interested
in getting to know Icelandic litera-
ture,” Kristín says. “She has now
had contact with several Icelan-
dic writers. Hopefully this sparks
something in this odyssey she is
on.”
“Gröndalshús is a very inter-
esting environment,” Chantal
concurs. “There is a community
of poets and singers. Some people
started telling me their tree sto-
ries. Now I have a few and I thought
it might be interesting to include a
few tree stories from people living
here.”
Chantal has been particularly
interested in gathering tree sto-
ries from women. “There is a very
strong presence of women every-
where here in Iceland, so I want to
have the presence of women poets
in the book.”
Upcoming residencies
In October 2020, the residency will
be in connection with the Interna-
tional Children’s Literary Festival
in Reykjavík. In April 2021, it will
connect with the biannual Reykja-
vík International Literary Festival.
Beyond the Reykjavík UNESCO
City of Literature residency, the
apartment in Gröndalshús is also
available to rent for a fee. It has
been an attractive location for self-
directed writer and artist residen-
cies since it opened.
Chantal Ringuet and Kristín Vi"arsdóttir
Books
“The narrative
raises impor-
tant questions
about hospital-
ity, the sense of
exile, and be-
longing in our
21st-century
world.”
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