Sjón and Roddy Doyle

In this globalised world, we’re increasingly drawn to stories from other places; tales that immerse us in faraway cultures. And where better to find our stories than in fellow UNESCO Cities of Literature, Reykjavik and Dublin? Icelander Sjón and Irishman Roddy Doyle each draw inspiration from the local, transforming the lives and literature of their native cities into stories that take place on the page, the screen – and through music.

Sjón

Icelandic author Sjón is a rock ‘n’ roll renaissance man. He writes poetry, pens lyrics for Björk, wrote a whale-watching ‘splatter film’, and won the Nordic equivalent of the Man Booker for his novel The Blue Fox. His latest novel, From the Mouth of the Whale, has just been shortlisted for the 2012 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize. His passion is melding ancient Icelandic traditions with the avant garde, mixing ‘myths and crackpot theories together with my need to tell a story’. A.S. Byatt has called him ‘an extraordinary and original writer’.

A former ‘neo-surrealist’ who started his career as a poet aged just 15, Sjón was nominated for an Oscar for ‘I’ve Seen it All’, the song he co-wrote for Dancer in the Dark with Lars von Trier and long-time collaborator Bjork. He is on the board of the Bad Taste (Smekkleysa) record label and a member of the advisory board for Kraumur Music Fund, which aims ‘to strengthen Icelandic musical life, primarily by supporting young musicians in performing and presenting their works’. He is currently adapting his novel The Whispering Muse for the opera and completing his eighth novel.

Roddy Doyle

When Roddy Doyle self-published his first novel, The Commitments, in 1987, he was told he’d struggle to attract readers beyond Dublin. Decades later – after a Booker Prize (for Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha), numerous novels, two films based on his books, and several screenplays – he’s gone from cult hero to cornerstone of the Irish literary establishment. And while his fan-base is worldwide, Ireland remains at the heart of his art.

Roddy’s latest novel, The Dead Republic, closes a trilogy on twentieth-century Ireland, told through the colourful life of IRA man Henry Smart. Talking about the first novel, A Star Called Henry, in 1999, he said, ‘I wanted to make sure that Henry wasn’t an evil character because I think that’s too easy and lazy … if Henry had been born in a more sedentary, more solidly working-class environment, rather than that underclass environment, he’d have had a perfectly normal life like the rest of us.’

Inspired by his friend Dave Eggers, Roddy founded Fighting Words, a creative writing workshop for children based in Ireland, in 1999. He is a frequent presence there, along with neighbour Anne Enright.