See For Yourself: Through the Windows of Brimnes

You can see the world as Bill Holm saw it—through the windows of Brimnes—in this captivating 26-minute PBS documentary, available for viewing at YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iICEgnvUr1Q

Brimnes — Photograph by Stefan M. Jonasson (2009)

Bill Holm's Toast to Lestrarfélagið

Bill Holm was the featured author at the inaugural meeting of Lestrarfélagið in 1996.  When the society gathered for its 100th evening, Bill graciously sent a toast to commemorate the milestone:


Skál to the Lestrarfélag for 100 nights of vinarterta and poetry to warm the soul of frosty Winnipeg.

That century of books follows you all like a bride's train—an emblem of honor.  An Icelander is made and revealed not by DNA nor by fish products, aluminum or investment schemes, but by the love of sentences—tales, poems, dramas, essays, whatever can be made with words on long winter nights.  The Lestrarfelag has honored all Icelanders—indeed all humans—by performing the greatest act of homage: reading.  So on this cold Minneota night, Marcy and Bill lift a glass to skál and congratulate you on your hundred nights.  Enjoy 100 more.

— Bill Holm

The Windows of Brimnes

Thursday, February 24, 2011 at 7:00 p.m. - We will meet at the Icelandic Collection to discuss the late Bill Holm's masterful book, The Windows of Brimnes.  Bill Holm was one of a kind. A Minnesotan of Icelandic ancestry, his travels took him all over the world, providing the material for a number of rich and memorable books. In The Windows of Brimnes, Holm views the world from Brimnes, his fisherman’s cottage on the shore Skagafjörður in northern Iceland. From there, he reflected upon the land of his birth — "my home, my citizenship, my burden" — as well as the land of his ancestors, which he adopted for himself as a haven atop the world.