Reading Emily Dickinson in Icelandic

A series of prose poems set in Iceland paired with a group of lyric experiments that stage the problem of the lyric “I,” this compilation evokes a time in which the romance and astonishments of a foreign land are challenged by the difficulties of earning a living as a foreigner. The narrator struggles with just how deeply language shapes perception and, as she tries to learn Icelandic, the blind spots proliferate. Preoccupied with the experience of voice, this work addresses the subject as it surfaces in failures of translation, exceeds signification, and floats or settles as accent and tic.