Milli mála - 2020, Page 202

202 Milli mála 12/2020
MULTILINGUAL WRITING IN ICELAND

10.33112/millimala.12.7
informed by us being involved in the publishing initiative. This
means that we are aware of the intentions behind Ós Pressan.
For example, an outsider researcher might be able to reflect on the
projects that Ós Pressan has done in communities in Iceland, but
might not necessarily know about the projects that Ós Pressan did
not manage to complete and the communities that we have not been
able to reach. As insiders, we know which grant proposals have been
successful, but we also know about applications that have not suc-
ceeded. Being insiders provides valuable information about the reali-
ties of a multilingual publishing initiative in Iceland and both the
challenges and positive reception of Ós Pressan as a non-profit or-
ganization based on volunteer work in the past years. As Ós Pressan
is a democratic initiative, this article has also been written collabora-
tively by three researchers and reflects our different perspectives on
Ós Pressan and its meaning in the Icelandic literary landscape.
The democratic core can be demonstrated by the approach used by
Ós Pressan to select pieces for publication, which will be discussed in
the following section.
5. Democracy in action:
Selecting pieces for publication
Selecting pieces for publication is a gatekeeping activity. That cannot
be denied. Even when gatekeeping, Ós attempts to be as open as pos-
sible and not use language as the primary determining factor for
inclusion in the journal. Between nine and eleven people sit on the
editorial board, and each has a vote about which pieces to include in
the journal, even if their vote is to abstain from voting. Each member
of the editorial board has access to several languages and backgrounds
in several genres. If a language or genre is unknown to the board
members, they find outside reviewers for the pieces. This happened
in the second journal, when someone submitted in Kurdish. From
the short description of the piece in English that came from the
author, the board was sure that they wanted to print it, but they
needed confirmation that the Kurdish matched the English. After
the votes are recorded, the editorial board meets for a discussion of