My island homes: interview with Grant Nicol
Grant Nicol was celebrating his fortieth birthday in Reykjavik when he decided he wanted to make Iceland home. Some might think that the New Zealand writer had merely swapped one volcanic island for another but, after leaving his homeland 23 years ago to work in both Australia and the United Kingdom, Grant knew...
Where the wild things are
It’s a bright Saturday morning in Stockholm and the sound of squealing children radiates through the air like the summer sun. You don’t need to be a parent to know that a squeal is far different from a scream, and it is sheer delight and excitement that spills from the mouths of these youngsters who are lucky enough...
Burning to write: Davíð Rafn Kristjánsson
Davíð Rafn Kristjánsson was never one for writing. It took a move to another continent, on the other side of the world for the 34-year-old to start expressing his thoughts and ideas through the written word. The result is Burning Karma (Wild Pressed Books), which tells the story of Böddi, who wakes up in a hospital...
You might know Van Badham as a writer from The Guardian, or maybe you’ve seen one of her numerous plays performed around the world. Failing that, you may also remember her as the woman responsible for that eye roll when she went head to head with a former politician who really doesn’t deserve to be named here. As for...
There was a time when it looked like the curtains had all but closed on Helsinki’s art-house cinemas. One by one, the independents that were loved and revered by film buffs and culture vultures began to shut their doors. Not even the historic Maxim was safe. It seemed inevitable that the popcorn-munching multiplexes...
Brothers’ grim love story
There’s a farm in Iceland that could be any farm in Iceland: snow-capped fjords, an endless expanse of land that only shrinks away any sign of human life, and of course, sheep. The only difference here is that the wire fence separating one farm from another may as well be the Berlin Wall for all the distance between...
Good news for Kent fans
Australian writer, Hannah Kent, who put Iceland on the shelves of readers around the world with her debut novel, Burial Rites, is releasing a new book in October this year. Set in Ireland, 1825, The Good People also focuses on an outsider: a young boy, Michael, who cannot walk or speak and is rumoured to be a...
Tom of Finland gets musical
A musical about the life of Touko Laaksonen, the artist best known by his famous signature Tom of Finland, will premiere in Turku City Theatre in January 2017. The show will be a part of the official program of events that celebrate the 100th anniversary of Finland’s independence. The homoerotic drawings created by...
Moonlight becomes you
Apart from being two big islands, Australia and Iceland don’t really have a lot in common, but that – and a whooping 11-hour time difference – didn’t stop two Iceland-based artists and one Australian writer waking or staying up to all hours in the name of art. The result is Under the Moon, an e-book collaboration with...
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