Ilulissat Kunstmuseum, Greenland

Ilulissat Kunstmuseum

During August I was Writer in Residence at Ilulissat Kunstmuseum on the North-West coast of Greenland. The museum holds a major collection of oil paintings and sketches of the Greenlandic landscape by the Danish artist Emanuel A. Petersen, and this became a focus for my own work. 

I was able to deepen my own experience of these landscapes, which were hidden under winter snow on my previous visit in 2010. I hiked the mountains around Ilulissat, visiting Sermermiut, an ancient settlement dating to 2400BC, and the Ilulissat Kangerlua (or icefjord). 

I gave presentations on my work at the Groenlandica Collection at the National Library of Greenland, which has acquired a copy of How To Say 'I Love You' In Greenlandic, and to the artist group Seqineq in Ilulissat. Watch this space for details of a new publication arising from the residency.

During my travels I met many remarkable people. Special thanks are due to Ole Gamst-Pedersen, Director of Ilulissat Kunstmuseum, and his wife Thrine, who made me very welcome in Ilulissat, and to Charlotte D. Andersen, Director of the Groenlandica Collection at the National Library of Greenland for her help with my research. My deep thanks also go out to all 67 supporters of my Kickstarter campaign, who generously covered the travel costs for this residency.

Summer reading: poetry

 

Thanks to the editors of The Interpreter's House and The Rialto for including my unseasonably icey poems in their summer issues.

• The Interpreter's House No 59  – available here – launch reading 16 July at The Albion Beatnik, Oxford
• The Rialto No 83 – available here – launch reading 22 July at The King & Queen, London

Summer reading: new essays and reviews

Filming Ófærð

• I wrote about the experience of sharing a small Icelandic town with a film crew working on the Nordic Noir drama Ófærð ('Trapped') for the Times Literary Supplement ('Freelance', 19 June issue or available online to subscribers). 
• A feature on Emma Stibbon RA's drawings of polar ice (current exhibition at The Polar Museum, Scott Polar Research Institute) has been published on the Royal Academy Blog. (You can read a lengthier assessment of Stibbon's work over at The Island Review.)
• I reviewed Confessions of a Comma Queen, a riotous memoir by The New Yorker's copy editor Mary Norris, for Editing Matters the journal of the Society for Editors and Proofreaders.
• A review of Printmaking on the Edge - the history of St Michael's print workshop in St John's, Newfoundland - is out in the summer issue of Printmaking Today. (Lovely book, available here.)

Disko Bay

I'm delighted to announce that my debut poetry collection, Disko Bay, will be published by Enitharmon Press in November.

The poems in Disko Bay are drawn from my experiences during a residency at Upernavik Museum, Greenland in winter 2010, and subsequent research and travel in the Arctic. The book is now in production: this week I returned the proofs (above) to the publisher. I hope this is the last time in my life I have to proofread Greenlandic!

 Here's a sample poem, as published in the current issue of The Interpreter's House:

I'm offering pre-order copies of the book (and extras including invites to the book launch party in London) as rewards for pledges to my current Kickstarter campaign: for more details see the campaign page.

Kayaking to Greenland...

… well, no actually. I don't think I'd quite make it around Cape Farewell, despite my training out on the placid waters of the River Thames. But I'm determined to get to Greenland to undertake my residency at Ilulissat Kunstmuseum this summer.

So to raise the funds to cover the substantial costs of flights on Greenland Air I have launched a crowdfunding campaign. There's a range of Arctic-themed rewards for supporters on offer here. Take a look (averting your eyes from the silly movie, in which I appear disguised in sportswear) and do spread the word if you can. Moral support is as gratefully received as the material kind.

Ilulissat Kunstmuseum

No jetty.

UPDATE 4 July: Thanks to the many generous supporters who pledged sums from £2 to £250, this campaign succeeded in raising the funds to cover transport costs to Greenland. Flights are booked, and I am looking forward to continuing my work about the north, in the north this summer.

The Wine Breath

Yesterday I reread The Wine Breath, a short story by John McGahern that I first heard as a New Yorker fiction podcast, read by the author Yiyun Li. That was way back in 2009 (it is still available in iTunes: scroll down to 68) but I've returned to the story many times since, always finding in it a new brilliance  and sometimes an uncanny synchronicity with my own writing concerns.

 

Road to the Sky iv (2009) by Bill Jacklin RA

© Bill Jacklin

'The priest put his hand to the black gate, bolted to the first of the alders, 

and was at once arrested by showery sunlight falling down the avenue...'

My latest reading was instigated by a meeting with the artist Bill Jacklin. I was reminded of the story while looking at Jacklin’s paintings and monotypes in the Royal Academy Summer show after we’d concluded our interview. This is just an anachronistic fantasy, but McGahern's entire story could be seen as a wonderful response to Jacklin's paintings. Take a closer look at Jacklin’s work, and you’ll see what I mean. 

Latest Magazine Cover Art

This spring I've been preparing cover art for two fine poetry magazines. An old favourite, Oxford Poetry (based - as you might expect - in the UK, and established in 1910) and the relatively youthful Sundog Lit (based in the US, and established as an online journal in 2012 - this is their very first print issue). Thanks to editors Lavinia Singer and Justin Daugherty for commissioning my work.

Oxford Poetry can be bought here (£7 plus postage)

Cover art: 'Orsuarlerpaa' from How To Say 'I Love You' In Greenlandic

(pochoir print)

Sundog Lit can be bought here ($8 plus postage)

Cover art: 'One of the Russian dolls had disappeared' (linocut print)