Viking long-ship, the ‘Solfar’ or ‘Sun Voyager’ created in steel by Jon Gunnar Arnason. Notice the modern day transport of motorized scooters alongside.
Great to be back in Iceland. It was the end of April and snowed the first day even though it is the Icelandic spring.
This time not a holiday but a series of workshops on creative writing (not really a 'retreat') led by many well-known writers. Amongst the participants I met many Americans and Canadians as well as Icelanders and also a special pleasure to meet many Africans - which I had not expected.
The IWR is organized by the First Lady so we had a reception in the Presidential Palace. There were also a choice of day trips - I chose the literary one which involved visiting the home of Haldor Laxness where the coach driver sat down at the piano and sang to us. His other job is as professional musician. Most unexpected. Apparently in Iceland many people have more than one job.
I attended workshops by Helen Oyeyemi and Amanda Smyth on novel writing. And a workshop by Chloe Aridjis on activism as a writer. So you have an idea of my current interests, outwith writing poetry! There were no workshops for poets but I understand that there will be in 2024.
On the last evening there was a participants' open mic where most people read extracts from novels in progress. I read my poem 'Inside the Whale Museum' which was about the museum in Husavik, North Iceland I visited on my last trip. It was on that same trip I visited Akureyri and saw the sea-monsters on Ortelius' map of Iceland which inspired my poems. (See previous blog.)
I highly recommend the course, though being Iceland it is expensive but worth it.
See https://icelandwritersretreat.com/
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