Book News Roundup: Iceland comes to Seattle this week

  • We caught wind of this event too late for tomorrow's reading calendar, but it's too cool not to mention. The 2016 Taste of Iceland festival is happening this week, and it features a free reading at KEXP's brand-spanking new headquarters (472 1st Ave. N) on Friday, October 14th. Iceland is one of the most literary nations on earth, with more authors per capita than anywhere else, and it's got a long, rich and unbroken tradition of literature that you should learn more about. Here's a description of the event:

...The event will blend together literature, history, and music, starting with a discussion by renowned author, Guðmundur Andri Thorsson on “Paper Vikings: Past and Present.” Thorsson will lead off the event with a lecture at 6 pm on Icelandic literature followed by a lively Q&A panel hosted by The Elliott Bay Book Company and Seattle City of Literature.

At 7 pm, Örnolfur Thorsson and Dr. Gísli Sigurðssonn, will take the stage to showcase both of their works and participate in a panel discussion on the Icelandic sagas and Norse mythology. Immediately following the panel discussion, Reykjavik Calling stars Fufanu and JFDR will treat the audience to a live “Rímur” performance! A ríma is an Icelandic epic poem written in any of the so-called rímnahættir

  • Last Friday, the Bureau of Fearless Ideas announced that their new executive director will be Andreas Herbst. The outgoing ED and founder of the BFI, Teri Hein, wrote in a post that Herbst was most recently "director of Seattle Goodwill's nonprofit job training and education centers," and that he has worked closely with Dave Eggers' Valentino Achak Deng Foundation. We look forward to meeting Herbst in the very near future.

  • Two Sylvias Press just announced the winner of the 2016 Two Sylvias Chapbook Prize. Congratulations to Lena Khalaf Tuffaha, whose book Arab in Newsland will be published by the Kingston press in the coming months. We published an amazing poem by Tuffaha, "As In," over the summer.

  • The very exciting new online poetry publication gramma just published three wonderful new poems by Seattle's own Sarah Galvin. Go check them out, and be sure to click around gramma a little bit while you're there.

  • Seems that some authors aren't being credited for pageviews on Amazon's Kindle Unlimited program, according to Nate Hoffelder at The Digital Reader. This is a big problem because on Kindle Unlimited, "Amazon pays not based on sales but on the number of pages read by KU subscribers." Hopefully those writers will get the money Amazon owes them.