Andri Snær Magnason's Blog, page 4

The Story of the Blue Planet chosen best children’s book in China

When your book comes out in a faraway place, behind mountains and rainbows, in a language you can not comprehend, it can be difficult to follow how it is doing, if it reached any readers or if it is available at all.

But I recently saw that The Story of the Blue Planet just won one of the best children’s book prizes in China with votes from more than 50.000 children. I found this information here: https://chinesebooksforyoungreaders.wordpress.com/2019/11/03/89-my-favourite-childrens-books-children-in-china-vote-for-their-top-30-books-of-2019/

I repost some this source here, about the prize, the jury etc…:

The  “My Favourite Children’s Books” (我最喜爱的童书) titles of 2019 have just been announced. The winning books are selected by children (the first award of its kind in China). [The awards are similar to the annual Children’s Book Awards in the UK – if you’d like to compare, the UK list starts with 50, is shortlisted to 10 – here’s the 2019 list, which has 3 winners and 7 runners-up.]

“My Favourite Children’s Books” was initiated by Shenzhen Children’s Library 深圳少年儿童图书馆 in 2014, and this year’s list was the sixth. The 2019 awards were co-organised by 39 provincial and city libraries. From January 2019, 5455 books were recommended by 129 institutions and 207 individuals. A panel of 9 experts was involved (see below). 100,000 books were purchased and distributed to 312 schools in 39 provinces and cities across China. A total of 1,309,111 votes were cast.

A total of 30 books (2019年我最喜爱的童书30强) have been selected, 10 in each category: literature, picture books, information books. It’s remarkable how many of these are translations from English and other languages, and how the awards appear to boost distribution and sales of the selected books (and sets of the winning books).

This post is based on the online account published on Wechat/Weixin by Tiantian chubanshe (Tomorrow Publishing House), on 28 Oct 2019.  I’ve added links to all the Chinese books, as listed on the Shenzhen Children’s Library website (which has additional information about the books). I’ve tried to identify the English and foreign titles of these Top 30 books, to make this list more accessible to English readers, and to provide weblinks where possible (many thanks to Minjie Chen for her help). I’ve also created a pdf (see below) showing the covers of all the books, side by side with the covers of the foreign titles.

The expert panel

LIN Wenbao 林文宝  (Taiwan) – expert in children’s readingWANG Yizhen 王宜振  – writer of children’s literature, poetZHOU Mimi 周蜜蜜 – member, Hong Kong Writers AssociationDING Xiaoqing 丁筱青 – Associate Professor, Yangzhou College of EducationGUO Hua 郭骅 – expert in children’s literature and psychologyDAI Yingyuan 戴颖媛 – national reading promoter, ShenzhenYAO Haijun 姚海军 – deputy editor, Science Fiction World magazineXI Zhinong 奚志农 – wildlife photographerSHI Jun 史军 – botanist; member, Songshuhui-Association of Science Communicators

Gold, silver and bronze titles (source of images: Douban)

Gold: [冰] 安德里·斯奈·德纳森/著；[冰]奥丝拉格·琼斯多特尔/绘；刘清彦/译 《蓝色星星的孩子国》(贵州出版集团   贵州人民出版社）-  The Story of the Blue Planet, by Andri Snaer Magnason (Iceland), tr. LIU Qingyan  (total votes: 58,141)

Silver: [美] 米歇尔·奎瓦斯/著；黄鸿砚/译 《我是你的隐形朋友》 (天津出版传媒集团  新蕾出版社)  –  Confessions of an Imaginary Friend, by Michelle Cuevas (USA), tr. HUANG Hongyan  (total votes: 51090)

Bronze: [日] 角野荣子/著；[日]大庭贤哉/绘；魏雯/译 《隧道的森林》（长江出版传媒   长江少年儿童出版社)   –  《トンネルの森1945》 [The Tunnel Through the Woods], by Eiko Kadano (Japan), tr. WEI Wen   (total votes: 45966)

On Time and Water out in Icelandic – soon in 14 languages

On Time and Water was published in Icelandic October 4th and has been on the top of the bestselling list in Iceland for four weeks by now.

This fall I have been performing as well a “one man show”, a lecture/performance/talk on the main stage of the Reykjavík City Theatre. Tthe first four performances have been sold out and at least two more are planned in Novemberl. With me on stage is the highly talented Högni Egilsson and a children’s quire from Kópavogur performing two pieces specially made by Högni for this show.

The Time and Water project has been going on for some years while I have been writing the book, it has evolved through lectures, talks and discussion in universities around the world.

Time and Water has now been sold to 14 publishers worldwide, (was seven when this article was written) so it will be published 2020 in English, German, French, Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish, Italian, Hungarian to name a few.

During the next 100 years we expect to see a fundamental change of all the elements of water on our planet. Many glaciers will melt and the sea levels will rise at a faster rate than humans have seen before. Acidification will bring the oceans to a pH level not seen in 30 million years. Patterns of rain and snow will change dramatically in most areas. We could say that nature has stopped changing in geological speed but has entered human speed. This extreme shift is larger than any metaphor or any words or language we are used to.Just like the huge gravity of a black hole makes it invisible, you could say that the issues we are faced with are so large that they swallow all words and meaning. We hear words like “climate change” but for most people they are just white noise, 99% of the real meaning is not included in our imagination. To describe a black hole you look at the surrounding galaxies and to understand these issues Andri weaves a web of stories from mythology, to crocodile research in the Amazon to his grandmother’s honeymoon on Europe’s largest glacier, to our understanding of our intimate time. We are faced with the almost impossible task of cutting carbon emissions to zero in 2050 according to newest studies. The question is – are we too late to do something? What can actually be done in 30 years? This calls for nothing less than a new scientific revolution, projects on the scale of the Manhattan project, new paradigms and a new approach to almost everything done in the 20th century.

Here is a good podcast to get some insight into the diverse body of work by Andri Snær Magnason.

 

 

On the BBC travel show with Cat Moh

I travelled with Cat Moh from BBC Travel Show to see the site of the former Ok glacier. The full length of the program can be found here.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0008v9g/the-travel-show-icelands-melting-glaciers

This one might vanish from the website soon but here is a shorter segment from BBC News:

At present around 10% of Iceland is covered in glaciers but scientists believe climate change will mean they will all be gone in 200 years.

The Travel Show’s Cat Moh joins Icelandic author Andri Snaer Magnason on a walk to the site of the now disappeared Okjokull glacier which is commemorated with plaque.

Grandfather Björn Thorbjarnarson dies at 98

I was lucky to visit my grandfather just three weeks ago at his home in New Jersey where he lived with his wife Margaret. He was 98 and a few months old but his mind was clear, while his feet were failing him. We could talk for a few hours and I could show him my new book, On time and water where he plays a big role. He came to America for a one year internship in 1948 and these years became two and three until he settled in the US and the years became 70. As he lived far away from us the visits were not as many as they could have been but whenI lived in the US as a child it would always be fun to visit the family in Brentwood, they had a swimming pool a boa constrictor and a small caiman crocodile, the pets of John that later became a crocodilian. In the later years I would often come over and chat for a while. I could ask him questions about time – if 100 years were a long time or a short time, and he said without hesitation, a short time. His life story was extraordinary, his carrier as a surgeon with patients like the Shah of Iran, Oppenheimer and Andy Warhol. Grandfather will be missed by his large family of daughters and grandchildrenm while we are grateful for his long life and his peaceful passing in his sleep. Here is an obituary about afi Björn in The New York Times.  

 

Mayor of Los Angeles reads the Ok memorial text at C40

Despite inaction on behalf of climate issues by the USA government there is some hope as mayors of major cities seem to be pushing things forward. I was honoured to see that Eric Garcetti Mayor of LA chose the text I wrote in memory of Ok glacier as a call to action at the C40 conference in LA. C40 represents many of the largest megacities in the world, with 700 million inhabitants and 25% of the global GDP. In the words of Garcetti:

,,As your incoming Chair, I will work with you to make the 2020s the decade of climate action.

This is the single most important decade in human history … a decade that will define and determine whether life sustains as we know it …

And there are reminders all around us.

One of them is in Iceland, about two hours to the northeast of Reykjavík, where you’ll find the Ok volcano.

On top of the volcano, a group of people recently placed a plaque titled “a letter to the future.”

It reads: “Ok is the first Icelandic glacier to lose its status as glacier. In the next 200 years all our main glaciers are expected to follow the same path. This monument is to acknowledge that we know what is happening and what needs to be done. Only you know if we did it. August 2019. 415 ppm CO2.”

Only you — our descendants and their descendants — will know if we did it.”

The Ok text is at minute 12:50 in the video and full speech can be seen here.

 

Coming to Brooklyn – readings September 12th and 15th

Andri Snær Magnason is reading twice in Brooklyn this week as a part of Taste of Iceland Festival in NYC.
Thursday September 12th at 8pm
and Sunday September 15th at 5pm

Molasses Books
Thursday September 12th 8pm

This year, Iceland Naturally welcomes author Andri Snær Magnason to Taste of Iceland in New York City. Andri Snær Magnason will discuss his wide ranging work that includes supermarket poetry, science fiction, and critical writings about current issues in Iceland. Andri is one of Iceland’s leading literary voices and his novel LoveStar won the leading science fiction awards in France 2016 – Le Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire, and a Philip K. Dick Citation of Excellence in the United States. Andri has won the Icelandic literary awards for fiction, non-fiction and YA/children’s books. His newest book, The Casket of Time, came out in April 2019. Andri is also currently the chairman of Reykjavík, Unesco City of Literature. Andri and The Casket of Time were recently reviewed in the New York Times.

WHERE: | 770 Hart Street, Brooklyn, NY 11237

WHEN: September 12 | Molasses Books | Official events start at 8pm, reading starts at 8.30pm

COST: Free

WHO: Andri Snær Magnason

https://www.facebook.com/events/305616813579115/



Spoonbill and Sugartown Books
Sunday September 15 | 5pm
Note: 20 minute reading/talk, additional time for talking, introduction and Q&A. 
Spoonbill and Sugartown Books | 218 Bedford Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11249

COST: Free

WHO: Andri Snær Magnason
https://www.facebook.com/events/2389341254491316/

ESERA 2019 – Keynote for Science Teachers in Bologna

I am heading to Bologna where I will be talking to the annual ESERA Conference – August 26-30, 2019. ESERA is one of the most important conference on science education that we have in Europe. I will talk about the topics I have been working on the last years and will be part of my upcoming book. I will also talk about the collaboration I did with Rice University and Oddur Sigurðsson geologist with the Ok Glacier Memorial. That might be a good example of the collaboration of science, humanities and the arts.

Here are the invited plenary speakers:

Invited Plenary Speakers

And here is my program:

Plenary Monday 26th

On Time and Water

Andri Snær Magnason, writer, Iceland

During the next 100 years we expect to see a fundamental change of all the elements of water on our planet. Many glaciers will melt and the sea levels will rise at a faster rate than has been seen before. Acidification will bring the oceans to a pH level not seen in 30 million years. Patterns of rain and snow will change dramatically in most areas. We could say that nature is not changing in geological speed anymore but entering human speed. This extreme shift is larger than any metaphor or any words or language we are used to. Just like the huge gravity of a black hole makes it invisible, you could say that this issue is so large that it swallows all words and meaning. We hear words like “climate change” but for most people they are just white noise, 99% of the real meaning is not included in our imagination. To describe a black hole you look at the surrounding galaxies and to understand these issues Andri weaves a web of stories from mythology, to his grandmother’s honeymoon on Europe’s largest glacier, to our understanding of our intimate time. We are faced with the almost impossible task of cutting carbon emissions to zero in 2050 according to newest studies. The question is – are we too late to do something? What can actually be done in 30 years? This calls for nothing less than a new scientific revolution, projects on the scale of the Manhattan project, new paradigms and a new approach to almost everything done in the 20th century. This huge narrative should be a source of motivation for all science studies in the next decades.

Andri Snær Magnason  is an Icelandic writer born in Reykjavik. He is a writer of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, plays and documentary films. His book LoveStar won the Philip K. Dick special citation in 2014 and Le Grand prix de l’Imaginaire in France 2016. and his children’s book, The Story of the Blue Planet was the first children’s book to win the Icelandic literary award and has been published in 32 languages. His book Dreamland, a Self Help Manual for a Frightened Nation has contributed to a new energy policy in Iceland and the vision of the Highland National Park in the Central Highlands of Iceland. Andri Snær Magnason ran for president in Iceland in 2016 and came third in the election.

 

 

Ok-glacier in Memoriam // A letter to the future

In memory of Ok – glacier – the first glacier in Iceland to be formally lost to human related climate change I was asked to form the text of a memorial plaque to be placed on top of Ok mountain. This is a project initiated by Dominic Boyer and Cymene Howe researchers from Rice University in Texas.

“This will be the first monument to a glacier lost to climate change anywhere in the world,” Howe said. “By marking Ok’s passing, we hope to draw attention to what is being lost as Earth’s glaciers expire. These bodies of ice are the largest freshwater reserves on the planet and frozen within them are histories of the atmosphere. They are also often important cultural forms that are full of significance.”

Click here for the full press release.

Glaciers are an important part of my family history. My grandparents were founding partners of the Icelandic Glacial Research Society in the 1950’s. The words I wrote for the memorial plaque are very basic and to the point.

A letter to the future

Ok is the first Icelandic glacier to lose its status as glacier. In the next 200 years all our main glaciers are expected to follow the same path. This monument is to acknowledge that we know what is happening and what needs to be done. Only you know if we did it.

August 2019, 415 ppm CO2

 

The name of the glacier, Ok might cause some curiosity. What is Ok in Icelandic?

Ok means yoke in Icelandic and the dictionary meaning is something like this:

yoke [jəuk] noun

1 a frame placed across a person’s shoulders, for carrying water.

2 something that weighs people down, a burden.

So the first version of my text referred the two meanings of the word:

Yoke held the water.

Yoke has melted.

The yoke is growing.

I also wrote a poem in the Edda metric form, the same as the poem Völuspá. Tthe draft was something like this: 

 

Ok/Yoke in Memoriam:

Glacier melts

and glaciers

ocean rises with oceans

beach sinks

with beaches

Yoke becomes the yoke

Ok

Jökull hverfur

og jöklar

hafið rís og höfin

sekkur strönd 

og strendur

Ok verður að oki

The melting of the glaciers is an issue all future generations will have to deal with and adapt to. As the glaciers are not vanishing. They are becoming an ocean that rises.

These issues are the theme of my upcoming book, On Time and Water. To be published in Icelandic in 2019.

 

 

 

The New York Times Review on The Casket of Time

The Casket of Time has been published in English and is available in the English speaking world. 

The 9th of July, on my grandfathers 98th birthday a super good review was published in the New York Times

“I loved this book so much — it is a cerebral tale, well told and unabashedly philosophical. It is dark, funny and grim. So grim that I fear it will not be for everyone. Mad kings, after all, have a tendency not only to wage endless wars, butalso to heap untold sorrows and horrors and pain on their subjects. So it goes in “The Casket of Time.”

The review, written by author and Newbery Medal winner Kelly Barnhill can be seen here. The Casket of Time is now available in 12 languages. 

The Casket of Time is my second book to be reviewed in The New York Times. The Story of The Blue Planet was reviewed a few years ago. “A Seussean mix of wonder, wit and gravitas.” The Story of the Blue Planet is published by Seven Stories Press in New York and Pushkin Press in the UK.  

Time Sensitive – New Podcast

Here is a new podcast, my talk with Andrew Zuckerman – click here to enter the site. Transcript, chapters, pictures. Lots of stuff.

Time Sensitive features candid, revealing portraits of curious and courageous people in business, the arts, and beyond who have a distinct perspective on time. Each week, co-hosts Spencer Bailey and Andrew Zuckerman respectively interview a leading mind who has made a profound impact in their field, contributed to the larger conversation, and is concerned with the planet we all share.

At Time Sensitive, we value time—especially your time.

Each episode is around an hour—long enough, we feel, to establish a thoughtful, intimate conversation and offer insights that just aren’t possible in a quicker format. (Understanding that not everyone has 60 minutes to spare, we also split our episodes into chapters, each between 5 to 25 minutes long; you can explore the episodes by chapter exclusively here on the timesensitive.fm site.)

We also believe that a podcast doesn’t just have to be a rich audio experience. That’s why, on the site, you’ll find condensed and edited transcripts of the interviews, with hyperlinks, and alongside them corresponding visuals. We hope it looks as good as it sounds.