Exhibitions in Iceland

You are invited to view two exhibitions in Siglufjörður, Iceland.  Herhusið will be open on Saturdays in March to show my recent work Vantar | Missing and Síður í Siglufjörður | Pages in Siglufjörður, 

a selection of artists' books on the theme of coastlines chosen by Sarah Bodman. 

Watch this space for Private View details, according to weather.

UPDATE! There's a date change: exhibition will be open on Friday 13 March, 

not Saturday 14 March. It's getting snowy here…

For directions and any other questions contact me: nancy@nancycampbell.co.uk

On the road again

Cover of Vantar / Missing

London
I'll be performing poems from my forthcoming collection on the Arctic as part of Trapped in the Ice, Frozen in Time at the British Library on Thursday 5 February. The evening is programmed as part of the library's acclaimed exhibition Lines in the Ice, which examines the role of the Arctic in the making of the modern world (runs until 19 April). It will be hosted by the Library's redoubtable Interactive Fiction Writer in Residence Rob Sherman, and also features readings by the wonderful JR Carpenter and Kate Pullinger.

Oxford
It's the final meeting of Arctic Book Club on Monday 9 February. It's been a wild whistlestop midwinter tour of Arctic literature, and my deep thanks go to Dennis Harrison of the Albion Beatnik bookshop for providing such a cool venue, and to the Arts Council for generously supporting the programme. Thanks also, of course, to all our readers, including those who read the books long-distance from as far away as New York and Norway. Follow @ArcticBookClub on Twitter to keep up with plans for next winter's programme.

Reykjavik
In March I travel to Iceland where I'll be reading at Dynamics of Darkness in the North, a conference at the Nordic House which runs from 26 to 28 February. This promises to be a fascinating event, perversely celebrating the United Nations designation of 2015 as 'International Year of Light'.

Siglufjörður
Also in Iceland, my recent work Vantar | Missing is exhibited at Herhusið, open on Saturdays in March. This will be accompanied by Síður í Siglufjörður | Pages in Siglufjörður, a selection of artists' books on the theme of coastlines chosen by Sarah Bodman.

Bristol and Bedford
Back in the UK I'll be exhibiting my books at Bristol Artists Book Event on 11 and 12 April (look out for the premiere of my new Arts Council-funded collaboration with BSL poet Donna Williams on 12 April in the Reading Room). Later in the month I'm looking forward to being guest reader at Ouse Muse in Bedford on 22 April. 

Return to Siglufjörður

I am grateful to the Oppenheim John Downes Trust for a generous grant that enables me to return to Iceland this spring to complete work on a series of poems about Icelandic fishing culture. These poems will be published together with a suite of photographs by Mark Walton.

I have been invited to read my work at The Nordic House, Reykjavik in February, before spending the month of March as Writer in Residence at Herhus in Siglufjörður, a small town at the northernmost point of Iceland.

Photographs by Mark Walton

Stravaig - Call for Submissions

Calling all intellectual nomads! Stravaig is seeking submissions of essays, poems and images for Issue 4 on the theme of 'Intellectual Nomads'. Contributions are invited by Monday 12 January to the editors Nancy Campbell at nancy@nancycampbell.co.uk and Norman Bissell at normanbissell@btinternet.com.

Stravaig is the Journal of the Scottish Centre for Geopoetics. Issue 3 (edited by Elizabeth Rimmer and Norman Bissell) can be read online here.

The Material Word

The open day at The Poetry Library in London earlier this month had 'The Material Word' as a theme. As part of the event, a selection of works that challenged the boundaries of poetry were on display.

10 Sentences by Ian Hamilton Finlay

Great cover design for A Valentine for Noel by Emmett Williams

M : Writings '67 - '72 by John Cage

(which eerily fell open at this page:

'We're in a confusion of / books. Bonfire?')

 From the Private Tutor series, invented by Simon Cutts and operational between 1967 and 1970. (Good news: the whole series will be digitally available on the Poetry Library's online magazines' website from 1 December 2014. See www.poetrymagazines.org.uk)

Thanks to poets and library staff Chris McCabe and Saradha Soobrayen for including How To Say 'I Love You' In Greenlandic in the display in both the fine press and small press editions. It was good to see visitors able to handle both works during the day.

Terrain Nonfiction Prize

Sketch of snow crystal by René Descartes

The Library of Ice, my essay on ice cores and human readings of frozen water, has been awarded the Terrain Nonfiction Prize for 2014. The Library of Ice can be read online at Terrain.org. 

Oxford and Greenland are Closer than they Appear

The Literary and Philosophical Society in Newcastle upon Tyne is always full of good things. On a recent visit I was glad to discover the World Prefix Map (hanging on the wall behind the scenes in the Bindery, where I was being supplied with tea and biscuits). The map - which at a guess comes from the 1970s - shows that Greenland, in 'the new Worldwide Amateur Location System', has the Prefix OX, my current UK postcode. And Oxford, confusingly, is given the prefix G.