Author: Björn Halldórsson
‘Öræfi’ And ‘CoDex 1962’ Nominated For BTBA Best Translated Book Award
Two Icelandic novels are nominated for this year’s Best Translated Book Award. The longlist for the award was announced this…
Sensibility is a Muscle: Turkish author Hakan Günday brings his love of language
With his eighth novel, “More,” published by Arcade, Hakan Günday entered the relatively small group of contemporary Turkish authors whose…
The Terror of the Metaphysical: Iain Reid Represents His Niche
Over the past few years, Canadian author Iain Reid has seen rising success after the publication of his first novel…
Sketches in the Sand: Rán Flygenring On Birds, Art And Play
Recently, the niche market of Icelandic-bird-guides-in-English gained a new addition in the form of “BIRDS,” a translation of Hjörleifur Hjartarson…
Iceland Guest Of Honour At Gdansk Book Fair
This March, Iceland will be the Guest of Honour at the Gdańskie Targi Książki literature festival in Gdansk, Poland. The…
Kristín Ómarsdóttir & Kristín Eiríksdóttir Nominated For 2019 Nordic Council Literature Prize
Last week, the Nordic Council announced the nominations for the 2019 Nordic Council Literature Prize. Two Icelandic authors are nominated…
Best In Translation: Our Picks Of The 2018’s Best English-Translated Icelandic Literature
2018 was a year of travel for Icelandic fiction, with the number of titles published in translation tripling from a…
The Mountains of Madness: Ófeigur Sigurðsson’s ‘Öræfi’ Published In English
When Ófeigur Sigurðsson’s third novel ‘Öræfi’—an experimental novel set in Iceland’s desolate Öræfi region—first went off to the printers, the…
In The Belly Of The Whale: Sjón’s ‘CoDex 1962’ Published In English
This autumn, Sjón’s anglophone readership will be glad to discover a new novel by the author in UK and US…
The Reykjavík Writer: Bragi Ólafsson’s ‘Narrator’ Published By Open Letter Books
This August marks the publication of “Narrator,” Bragi Ólafsson’s third novel on the English language market. As with “The Pets”…
Language is a Weapon: Elías Knörr On Poetry & Prejudice
If you have attended a Reykjavík poetry reading in recent years, chances are you have been lucky enough to catch…
Ten Years in Translation: US Publisher Of Icelandic Fiction Open Letter Books Fills A Decade
Speak with any Anglophone translator of literature for longer than a few minutes and you’re likely to hear the number…
Trapped In A Narrative: New Book On The Guðmundur And Geirfinnur Case Released In The UK
For most Icelanders, the names Guðmundur and Geirfinnur have immediate connotations. In January and November of 1974, these two seemingly…
Over and Over Again: Kristín Ómarsdóttir’s Poetry Published By Carcanet
This summer, UK publisher Carcanet joins forces with Reykjavík/Manchester based publisher Partus to put out “Waitress in Fall”, a collection…
Last Words: Dear Future Employer
The following is one of the many job applications the author has sent to advertising firms in his career as…
Tomorrow Will Be Worse: Kristín Svava Tómasdóttir’s ‘Stormwarning’ published in the US
Although Icelandic literature is today widely available in other languages, translations of Icelandic poetry are a relative rarity—this despite the…
Alexander Dan On The Untapped Resource of Icelandic Fantasy
In 2014, when Alexander Dan first started looking for a publisher for the sci-fi/fantasy novel that he’d worked on for…
An Elegy for a Murdered Woman: Gerður Kristný’s ‘Drápa’ Now In English
This month, UK based Arc Publication will be publishing Drápa, Icelandic author and poet Gerður Kristný’s second book to appear…
Manipulating Time in Search of Meaning: ‘Hotel Silence’ Published In English
This month, Pushkin Press and Grove Atlantic will be publishing ‘Hotel Silence’, Icelandic author and playwright Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir’s third…
The Fact of Fiction: “Woman at 1,000 Degrees” Published In English
Though the Icelandic Christmas book season is over, the next few months mark the release of many Icelandic translations into…
Get Your Read On: Snare & Whiteout
It’s winter. Don’t go out. It’s disgusting out there. Turn up the radiators and read one of these. Snare –…
The Eagle and the Falcon: Fantasy Of A Nazi-Occupied Iceland
The tapestry of Icelandic writing in the 21st century is an ever expanding one. This is largely because although most…
The Book Flood Cometh: Iceland’s ‘Jólabókaflóð’ Arrives Once Again
The Icelandic Yuletide is a time for two things: Reading and eating—and you can only do so much eating. Every…
The Benefits Of Being Lost: Rebekka Rafnsdóttir On Writing And Being
Earlier this year, Rebekka Rafnsdóttir received the Bette Howland Prize for Non-Fiction for her essay ‘A Girl on the Hunt.’…
Lit News: TV Adaption Of ‘The Shroud’ In The Works
Original TV dramas have always struggled in Iceland, largely due to the country’s small viewing market and the limited budget…