Iceland Noir!

Taking part in the Iceland Noir festival, November 15th-18th, celebrating the November darkness in all its shifting shapes - a perfect venue for a trilogy called The Shadow Bridge - was nothing short of wonderful.

Was on a Storytel panel on Wednesday about audiobooks with Anna Bågstam and Óskar Guðmundsson, impeccably moderated by Ingileif Friðriksdóttir. We had fun and the audience was lovely.

On Friday I had the honour of meeting Neil Gaiman in a reception at the British Embassy. Endless thanks to Neil for taking the time to chat. I'm over moon for having had the chance to give him a first edition of my first novel Skuggabrúin (The Shadow Bridge) and a volume of crime shorts from 1952, including a story by Harry Stephen Keeler, one of Neil's guilty pleasures. The book was part of the collection of my late friend and mentor, Eysteinn S. Björnsson, to whom The Shadow Bridge is dedicated.

Thanks to the British Embassy for the photo.

From Noir's website:

"Ingi Markússon is a former bookstore employee with a background in electronic noise music, study of religion and semiotics. His first novel, Skuggabrúin (The Shadow Bridge), the first part of a dying-earth trilogy of the same title, was published last year. It was well received by critics and readers alike, especially those of science fiction and fantasy, genres that have only recently gained foothold in Iceland’s literary landscape. Skuggabrúin was nominated for the Icelandic Storytel Awards; before, the manuscript was awarded the Grassroots Grant of the Icelandic Literature Center. The second volume, Svikabirta (False Light), is in the works."

More information on Iceland Noir and the 2023 line-up. http://icelandnoir.com/2023lineup