Meet the Author — Kristín Ómarsdóttir and translator John Swedenmark

Now I die, honey – Livestream

Kristín Ómarsdottír is a peculiar voice in Icelandic literature. Kristín Ómarsdóttir explores gender, boundaries and identity in her strong and vulnerable poems, novels, short stories and plays. This author night will revolve around Kristín Ómarsdóttir’s authorship as the award-winning translator John Swedenmark, who translated Ómarsdóttirs books, will lead us through.

The Livestream begins at 7.30 pm.

Kristín Ómarsdóttir (1962) has received numerous awards for her works. The novel Elskan mín ég dey (“Now I Die, honey”) was nominated for the Nordic Council Literature Prize in 1999 and her play Ástarsaga 3 (“Love story 3”) was nominated for the Nordic Dramatic Prize in 1998.
In 2005 she received the Icelandic award Grímuverðlaunin as Playwright of the Year for the Play Segðu mér allt (“Tell Me Everything”).

For the poetry collection Sjáðu fegurð þína (“See your beauty”), she received the Icelandic award Fjoraverðlaunin in 2008. Kristín Ómarsdóttir has also worked with visual art, exhibited drawings, and participated in exhibitions where she has worked with various art forms such as videos and sculptures. Kristín Ómarsdóttir’s books have been translated into Danish, Swedish, Finnish and French, and her poems have been published in foreign anthologies

When the book Kóngulær í sýningargluggum  “Spiders in exhibition windows” (nominated for the Nordic Council Literature Prize in 2019) was published, an Icelandic critic wrote: “Kristín succeed with both fascinating and scaring, make one cry and happy, all at once.”

John Swedenmark (1960) is a translator, linguist and editor living in Stockholm. He translates Icelandic fiction, as well as French and English literature and poetry from several other languages. In addition, he is an essayist himself.

Among the authors Swedenmark has translated are; Gyrðir Elíasson, Steinunn Sigurðardóttir, Émile Benveniste, Kristín Ómarsdóttir, Sjón, Jón Kalman Stéfansson, Eiríkur Örn Norðdahl and Alda Merini.

Swedenmark won Orðstír Award 2019  – ‘the honorary award for translators of Icelandic literature into a foreign language’ and the Swedish Academy’s translator award in 2019.