Icelandic Literature at The London Book Fair
The Icelandic Literature Center and Icelandic Publishers' Association will participate in The London Book Fair, which takes place April 8-10. You will find Iceland at the Nordic Stand, U215.
Like last year, the Nordic countries will exhibit at a joint stand in London. At the Nordic stand, the Icelandic Literature Center will join its sister organizations Norla from Norway, Finland's Fili, the Faroese Farlit, the Swedish Arts Council and the Danish Arts Council.
The ILC has prepared a list of 20 Icelandic books published in 2013 which will be highlighted during the London Book Fair. The list will appear on the ILC's webpage during the following weekend, while last year's list can be found here (PDF).
Nordic Literature at Earls Court
Earls Court, The London Book Fair's exhibiting area, is host to around 1500 exhibitors from all over the world, and attended by 25,000 industry professionals. A great number of conferences, lectures and seminars take place at and around the book fair. This year, the Nordic countries will jointly host the seminar Beyond Nordic Noir – An Overview of the Nordic Literary Market, which takes place at 17:00, on Tuesday, April 8, at Wellington Room (EC1).
Speaking at the event are Susanne Bergström Larsen, Project Manager at the Swedish Arts Council; Kristenn Einarsson, Managing Director of the Norwegian Publishers Association; Boyd Tonkin, Senior Writer and Columnist at The Independent, and Anne-Marie Rasmussen, Senior Advisor with the Danish Agency for Culture. The topic is Nordic literature, of which the most prominent offshoot in the English-speaking world is crime fiction. Fixating on that particular genre, however, fails to do justice to the diversity of Nordic literature, which has featured prominently in the English realm of literary fiction as well. A recent Icelandic example would be the inclusion of two Icelandic novels, Butterflies in November by Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir and The Sorrow of Angels by Jón Kalman Stefánsson, on this year's long list of The Independent Foreign Fiction Prize. The prize's short list will be announced at the book fair.
The Nordic stand is number U215. We look forward to meeting you there.