Milli mála - 2020, Blaðsíða 205
Milli mála 12/2020 205
ANGELA RAWLINGS, LARA W. HOFFMANN, RANDI W. STEBBINS
10.33112/millimala.12.7
forum for poets who write in different languages).44 This indicates a
tendency towards othering the group and keeping languages other
than Icelandic outside mainstream publishing in Iceland.
On the whole, media based in Iceland focuses more on the or-
ganizational structure of Ós Pressan and what is novel about this
initiative in Icelandic publishing, e.g. emphasizing the use of multi-
ple languages (“fjölmála samfélag rithöfunda”),45 and the fact that
most of the members of Ós Pressan are of foreign origin. The articles
do not engage with the writing published by Ós Pressan or the indi-
vidual members of Ós Pressan. When referring to individual mem-
bers who are authors, articles have tended to emphasize their coun-
tries of origin and how long they have lived in Iceland. One example
of this can be found in an article published in Vísir in 2015:
“Þar lesa tvær skáldkonur upp, þær Ewa Marcinek frá Póllandi sem hefur
búið á Íslandi í tvö ár og hin bandaríska Randi Stebbins sem flutti til Ís-
lands á síðasta ári”46 (two authors will be reading there, Ewa Marcinek
from Poland, who has been living in Iceland for two years, and the US-
American Randi Stebbins who moved to Iceland last year).
Four years later, the following September 2019 example is indicative
of a continued emphasis in Icelandic media on local writers’ countries
of origin.
“Hér má heyra í litháíska ljóðskáldinu Mantas Balakauskas, sagnakonu-
num Ewu Marcinek frá Póllandi og Helen Cova frá Kolubíu [sic] sem báðar
hafa verið búsettar á Íslandi um nokkurt skeið”47 (Here you can hear the
Lithuanian poet Mantas Balakauskas and the storytellers Ewa Marcinek
from Poland and Helen Cova from Colombia who both have been living in
Iceland for a while).
44 Guðjónsson, Kristján, “Fjölmála skáldasamfélag”, 2016, https://www.dv.is/fokus/menning/
2016/05/07/fjolmala-skaldasamfelag [accessed 30.04.2020].
45 Ibid.
46 Gunnarsdóttir, Gunnþóra, “Nýjar Raddir Skálda”, Vísir, 2015, https://www.visir.is/g/
2015707259997 [accessed 30.04.2020].
47 Sigurðardóttir, Jórunn, “Ljóð og sögur á ólíkum tungumálum”, RÚV, 2019, https://www.ruv.is/
frett/ljod-og-sogur-a-olikum-tungumalum [accessed April 30, 2020].