The Institute of Gunnar Gunnarsson, Iceland

During September and October I am Writer in Residence at Skriuðuklaustur, near Egilsstaðir in East Iceland.  Skriuðuklaustur is the former home of Iceland's much-loved novelist Gunnar Gunnarsson, who donated it to the nation in 1948, with the proviso it should be a home for literature. (You can read more of the history and architecture of this fascinating and unusual Icelandic building here.)

During my time here I'm researching glaciers for my forthcoming book The Library of Ice. The vast Vatnajökull glacier is not far from Skriuðuklaustur, and as well as enjoying the peaceful writing environment, I've been participating in some more active research out on the icecap. 

Borrowed Bookshelves 16

The Institute of Gunnar Gunnarsson, Skriðuklaustur, Iceland

Borrowed Bookshelves 15

The author Þórbergur Þórðarson’s library from his Reykjavik home

recreated at The Þórbergur Centre, Hali, Suðursveit, Iceland

The Polar Tombola: Exhibition

A word donated to The Polar Tombola by poet Saradha Soobrayen

If you had to lose a word from your language, what would it be?

Endangered languages and censorship are the themes of an exhibition opening on 4 September 2017 at UWE Library,  Bower Ashton, Bristol. On display is the archive of The Polar Tombola, a participatory live lit / art project with which I have toured the UK over the last two years. I've been discussing language loss with artists, writers, librarians, curators, scientists and many others, and collecting the words these individuals feel they could - or should - live without. The exhibition includes all 300+ words donated to the archive, together with texts commissioned from leading contemporary writers for the accompanying anthology A Book of Banished Words. Visitors will also be able to see the original installation, including the 'tombola' and the Greenlandic-English dictionary that inspired the project.

Special Offer! The Polar Tombola: A Book of Banished Words is available post-free within the UK for the duration of the exhibition.

The Polar Tombola runs until 31 October 2017 at Bower Ashton Library, Kennel Lodge Road, Bristol, BS3 2JT. More details here.

For a full account to the project, look out for an article on The Polar Tombola in the forthcoming issue of The Blue Notebook Journal for Artists' Books.

The Polar Tombola exhibition, publication and tour were made possible with the generous support of Arts Council England Grants for the Arts.

Michael Murphy Memorial Prize

The shortlist for the 2017 Michael Murphy Memorial prize has just been announced by judges Deryn Rees-Jones, Karen Leeder and John Mcauliffe. The £1000 prize is awarded for a distinctive first book of poetry in English published in Britain or Ireland. I’m honoured that Disko Bay is one of the five titles on the shortlist, alongside This Changes Things by Claire Askew, Beauty / Beauty by Rebecca Perry, The Observances by Kate Miller and Otherwise by John Dennison.

The winner will be announced on National Poetry Day, 28 September 2017 and the prize will be awarded at the English Association's Annual General Meeting on 23 May 2018. Meanwhile, Disko Bay is available to Poetry Book Society members at the customary 25% discount.

Walking On Lava

I'm delighted to announce the arrival of Walking on Lava: Selected Works for Uncivilised Times, a new paperback collection of essays, stories, poems, interviews and artwork taken from the first ten issues of Dark Mountain, which includes my essay on poetry and preservation in the Arctic, 'No More Words for Snow'.

Walking on Lava opens with the original Dark Mountain manifesto and should be the ideal introduction for new readers wanting to find their bearings in Dark Mountain territory. Meanwhile, for those who discovered the project in recent years, it offers the chance to get acquainted with some of the formative early contributions.

The book is edited by Charlotte Du Cann, Dougald Hine, Nick Hunt and Paul Kingsnorth – and published on both sides of the Atlantic by Chelsea Green.

Walking on Lava is available from all good bookshops and can be ordered direct from the Dark Mountain shop. Readers in the US may prefer to order direct from the publisher.

We'll be celebrating the official launch of Walking on Lava with an evening at the Old Truman Brewery in London on 5 September. This is a free event, but places are limited, so please register on the Eventbrite page.

World Book Night 2017: BOOK ISH NESS

With spring comes... World Book Night.

The theme this year was chosen by wild artist, king of the rubber stamp, and long-time Nessie aficionado Steven Fowler. He decreed that the United Artists, rather than reading and responding to a single work of fiction as in previous years, would research the history of publications around the Loch Ness monster, and contribute a new work to the genre. As plans began to take shape, the name BOOK ISH NESS (created by Linda Parr) was adopted for the project.

This year's programme was the most adventurous yet, surpassing previous research in the woodlands of Oxfordshire (The Secrets of Metahmeralism, after Donna Tartt's The Secret History) and the takeaways of Bristol (TOAST: A Night on Weevil Lake, after Douglas Copeland's The Gum Thief).

Sighting on Loch Ness, 12 March 2017

Primed with studies of cryptozoology and hazy evidence of 1970s monster-spotting technology, members of the public sent in evidence captured around the globe. The Loch Ness Investigation Bureau (officially formed in 1961 and closed in 1972) was Rebooted in response to this flurry of sightings. Thirteen members of the Bureau met at Fort Augustus on 10 March and spent five days carefully observing Loch Ness from different look-out points including the Nessieland attraction at Drumnadrochit, the turrets of Castle Urquhart, and the great locks at the end of the Caledonian Canal. This gruelling observation schedule, from dawn to midnight daily, led to many new and interesting discoveries. Sarah Bodman, the expedition's head chef, did an inspired job of feeding hungry LNIBR members at Morag's Lodge.

Even in the woods there were monsters

Beginning to map the monster

I began a ballad recounting our investigations, but - true to the spirit of Hunting The Snark which inspired it - it remains unfinished. Thankfully other Investigators have been more organised. You can see documentation of LNIBR preparations and excursions, records of sightings, and other results of the trip (both visual and verbal) and buy a copy of the BOOKISHNESS publication at the UWE Book Arts Website. And there's a movie too! 

BOOKISHNESS,

containing contributions from many monster hunters