Iceland Writers Retreat – Page 2

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Geraldine Brooks, Halldor Laxness, Iceland Writers Retreat, Joseph Boyden, Sjon, Susan Orlean

An Imposture of Writers at Iceland Writers Retreat

In the library at Bessistadur (the Icelandic White House)

In the library at Bessastadir (the Icelandic White House)

Ironically, there is no collective noun for writers. According to Google, James Lipton has suggested “a worship of writers.” Although Lipton is an expert on collective nouns (he’s written a book about it after all) the term hasn’t caught on. The very people who both enshrine common usage of words and mint new words where language provides none have for centuries neglected to establish a collective noun for their own work. Perhaps this is because writing is such solitary work. Read More

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Iceland, Iceland Writers Retreat

Wanderlust

View from Perlan, near the hotel where I will be staying.

Tomorrow I leave for Iceland! While I’m there, I plan to focus on the Iceland Writers Retreat workshops, but I have posts – mostly book reviews – scheduled while I’m gone. Bonus: all of the books are by authors who are involved in the retreat, and whom I will very likely meet this week. Read More

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Blue Lagoon, Iceland Writers Retreat, Through Black Spruce

Blue Lagoon

Joseph Boyden says in Through Black Spruce

Fucking stories. Twisted things that come out no matter how we want them.

Regular readers of this blog know that if a picture is worth a thousand words, I’ll take a thousand words. With less than two weeks left until Iceland Writers Retreat, I wanted to tell some stories about getting ready for that trip. But this week I am sick, and all my drafts keep getting twisted. So until the NyQuil wears off, I will leave you with a picture of the Blue Lagoon in Iceland. Right now, with my nose blocked and my head foggy, I can’t imagine anything better than soaking in its geothermally heated mineral waters.

ByGD

backlist books, book reviews, Geraldine Brooks, Iceland Writers Retreat, People of the Book

People of the Book: Report

In preparation for Iceland Writers Retreat, I am reading books by each of the featured authors. It feels a little weird to review authors who are about to become my teachers, but it’s easier to read critically when I know I have to report on it afterwards. I had already read Geraldine Brooks’ Year of Wonders; I enjoyed it as a reader. As a writer I enjoyed trying to understand her choices: writing about survival instead of adventure, building an overtly feminist story within a culture that was anything but. My library holds on the remaining authors hadn’t come in yet, so I started People of the Book. By the second page, her Sam Spade of a protagonist had grabbed me by the throat, and she didn’t let go until days after I finished reading. Read More

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backlist books, Beggar's Feast, book reviews, Iceland Writers Retreat, Randy Boyagoda

Book Report: Beggar’s Feast

Crows and squirrels. Beggar’s Feast is crowded with these urban vermin, potent symbols whose meaning I could never quite make out, just as I could never quite tell what was behind anyone’s words when I was in Kandy town almost exactly twelve years ago and saw neither crows nor squirrels. When I pulled Beggar’s Feast by Randy Boyagoda from the stack of overdue library books all I knew was that the book is by an Iceland Writers Retreat featured author. When I discovered the novel was set near Kandy, and that it spanned a century of Sri Lankan history, I was certain that it would be one of my favorites. I even hoped that it would help me understand the week twelve years ago that spawned some of my own best favorite travel stories. Read More

Tag Archive Iceland Writers Retreat

An Imposture of Writers at Iceland Writers Retreat