Eulalia Books Publishes 'Cold' by Meg Matich '15

Eulalia Books recently published the long-awaited poetry debut, Cold, by Meg Matich '15. The collection is available for purchase at Eulalia Books.

Matich's collection of poems is a work of translational and responsive poetics that reflects her immersion in the language and landscape of Iceland. Cold casts a lyrical look at human life amidst the violence and tenderness of the elements: "wild light, unbundled sea, hulks of ice, the larder overfull with shark meat."

Matich began to work on Cold in 2013 as part of her Columbia thesis. Cold emerged from Matich's compulsion to place herself "at the center of the world, and the consequences for my identity when my insular, cold egoism began to break apart as I formed wholesome relationships with and in Iceland."

Matich stated, "The longer I lived in Iceland—now just under six years—the more I turned toward the world, and the less I allowed either my own or elemental coldness [to] occlude relationships." To her, the cold now "feels like a support, something that holds my body upright and embraces me."

Learning Icelandic also allowed Matich to explore the new possibilities of language by turning towards others. Language acquisition was "an invitation to think in broader terms, to write in a new grammar, with new remarkable words," she said.

Cold was the first winner of the Joe O'Connor Poetry Series, an award hosted by Eulalia Books and Saint Vincent College. All copies of Cold are produced and hand-bound by graduate students enrolled in a small publishing course at Saint Vincent.

"During the class last fall, the students talked with Meg about the book, her process of writing, and her vision for its publication," stated Elizabeth Elin, an intern at Eulalia Books. "We discussed and designed the color scheme and layout of the book, selected the materials for it, letterpressed the cover and glossary of Icelandic terms, and bound the books."

According to author Bruce Smith, “Matich’s language in Cold comes from the 'sharpened edges of the air.' She makes poems of raw and elemental want, scrubbed down, knowing, alive, chiseled into form. She makes a cosmogony of ocean, island, lava, a calving moon, musk. It’s a universe that invites you into its secrets and revelations. The temperature and the skill of these poems make me gasp. ”

Author Gerður Kristný also praised the collection, stating, “Matich’s lyricism is as powerful and piercing as an Icelandic blizzard. The louder the roar, the deeper the calm that follows. The same rule applies to these poems. No one should read this book without warm mittens.”

Meg Matich is a poet and translator in Reykjavik. She has received support for her work from the Banff Centre, PEN America, and the Fulbright Commission, and she is a frequent collaborator with Reykjavik UNESCO. Among other projects, Matich has collaborated with poet Magnús Sigurðsson on an anthology of Icelandic poetry, translated a book of essays in honor of former President Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, and translated the novel Magma (Grove Atlantic, 2021) by Þóra Hjörleifsdóttir. Matich is one of a few immigrants in the Icelandic Writers’ Union and considers that membership quintessential to her life in Iceland.