In 1939, the Icelandic author Gunnar Gunnarsson built a German farm in North East Iceland, next door to the farm on which he was born. In 1940, he went on a politically complex speaking tour in wartime Germany. In 2013, the Canadian author Harold Rhenisch (That’s me, hi!) who was raised on a German farm in Canada built on similar principles to Gunnarsson’s, will stay in Gunnarsson’s house. It will be a homecoming, of language, land, and an old agricultural dream. While there, I (Hi! That’s me, too) will demonstrate that Gunnarsson’s novels and his German speech were a form of nonfiction writing ahead of their time. This is their time.
Over the past 31 years I have published 27 books, including poetry, fiction, memoir, translation, innovative-form nonfiction, and photographic books on environmental themes. I live in the volcanic Columbia River Plateau in British Columbia, Canada, where I write the environmental blog okanaganokanogan, which I am using as an exploration of the unity of science and literature. For stories, photos, and more information, please click an image below.
Gunnar Gunnarsson found his way home. I am walking with him to see where he went. I hope you can come along.
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The water that weaves the land is the land that weaves the water. Note the sheep track in the middle foreground (and the sheep in the upper right. Crazy fun). They’re part of this weaving, too, as are, now, you.
A Farm in Iceland 