A Day in the Life of an Icelandic Writer: Andri Snær Magnason
The Iceland Writers Retreat asked several Icelandic authors to describe what a day of writing looks like for them. Next up is Andri Snær Magnason, a frequent guest at the Iceland Writers Retreat and one of the island nation’s most lauded and controversial writers.
A DAY IN MY LIFE
A day in my life, if it is summer when I try to photosynthesize to prepare for the winter. This week hiking toward the center of earth on the Snæfellsjökull Peninsula, woke early to prepare an Airword event I am curating with Iceland Airwaves, making up unread mails, a possible sale of film rights, saying yes you can eat the rhubarb plant, finding a moment to scribble an idea, answer a request like this one and saying yes you can put sugar on the rhubarb before helping Ólafur Arnalds, who popped up on facebook, looking for an old recording of an old Icelandic rhyme. I have an office in an empty power station in the river valley close by. I write there, but not today, or yesterday, recently going more to cafes downtown, or staying at home, unless I said yes to something and have a lecture, a reading for kids in a school or trying to say something wise in a larger conference or university and, after my books were translated, trying to write on airplanes and trains or in hotel rooms in Germany, Norway, Hungary, or Tokyo.
This year I started with the 2015 diet. 2015 words a day, 2015 meters a day (running or walking), 2015 calories a day. Flopped on the 15th of January. Once I finished a book by blasting "What Else is There," a Trentemöller remix of Röyksopp featuring “The Knife." That got me almost through my newest work. Spent the next two years polishing, fixing and moving and rewriting, until I was about to press send to the publisher and decided to spend another year on the book. Every day is different, still similar. Fighting the urge to google things, trying not to drink the 12th espresso, not to stir up a discussion on facebook, trying not to squander ideas into the void of Twitter.
Andri Snær Magnason is an award-winning author, poet, and environmental activist living in Reykjavík. His works have been translated into numerous languages and, in 2009, his controversial book Dreamland: A Self-Help Manual for a Frightened Nation was turned into a critically-acclaimed documentary film. His most celebrated novels include The Story of the Blue Planet, which was recently adapted to the stage by Akvavit Theatre in Chicago, and LoveStar, which was named “Novel of the Year” by Icelandic booksellers and nominated for the Icelandic Literary Prize.
