Milli mála - 2020, Page 204

204 Milli mála 12/2020
MULTILINGUAL WRITING IN ICELAND

10.33112/millimala.12.7
• 1 successful crowdfunding campaign through Karolína Fund
• 1 successful grant from the City of Akureyri Culture Fund
• Articles on Ós in all major newspapers, twice in the English-
language publication of Grapevine
• Ós members asked to contribute to international blog on mul-
tilingual writing
• Appeared 4 times on Orð um bækur, a weekly radio roundup
of what is happening in the literary scene in Iceland and
abroad
• Members invited to read and speak at Reykjavík UNESCO
City of Literature events, including the month of Reykjavík
Reads in October every year.
Many of the events have been attended by both immigrant and native
Icelandic authors, musicians, and artists. Some of them, along with
Ós and its members, have received media coverage.
7. Reception in the Media
When looking at the media coverage, themes emerge both nationally
and internationally. Interestingly, these themes vary somewhat
between the national and international levels. We can further observe
some differences between media reports by Icelandic-speaking media
and media reports by English-speaking media. Overwhelmingly, the
press and reaction to Ós and its activities has been positive here and
abroad, but the international press coverage tends to focus more on
the organization’s novel structure, language policy, and publications
while the local media takes a more othering tone.43
Ós has been featured in both English- and Icelandic-language
media in Iceland. In both languages, the interviewers have focused on
the language of the publication and their perceptions of the difficul-
ties of finding an audience in Iceland. The articles have used phrasing
such as “Vettvangur fyrir skáld sem skrifa á ólíkum tungumálum” (a
43 Allen, Stuart, “Journalism and the Culture of Othering”, Brazilian Journalism Research, 2/2010,
doi: 10.25200/BJR.v10n2.2014.776.