Erika Thorkelson is a writer of Icelandic, French and English ancestry who has lived in Winnipeg, Edmonton, Dublin and a small town in Japan. Her essays, criticism, journalism and short stories have appeared in The Walrus, Chatelaine, Room Magazine and Maisonneuve among others. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia and now lives in Vancouver where she is a lecturer at Emily Carr University of Art + Design.
While in Skagaströnd, Erika will be working on an essay collection that is the culmination of more than a decade of exploring the intimate effects of large-scale instability and disaster both human made and natural as a journalist and essayist. This work has brought her from the tsunami wrecked coast of Northern Japan, to the hushed streets of Vancouver’s wealthy Shaughnessy neighbourhood, to an active volcano near Grindavík, Iceland. The collection, titled How to Look at a Volcano, will be released by Book*hug Press in 2027.