Gyrðir Elíasson (b. 1961 in Reykjavík) is an Icelandic poet and translator, brought up in Sauðárkrókur, a small village in the north of Iceland. Married, he has three daughters. His first book, a volume of poems, was published in 1983. Since then he has published many books of poetry, along with several novellas and collections of short stories and essays. He has translated some twenty books into Icelandic, primarily from English.
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Meg Matich has received support for her literary translation work from PEN, Fulbright, the Icelandic Literature Center, and others, and frequently collaborates with UNESCO. She received a PEN/Heim Translation Prize for her translation of Magnús Sigurðsson’s Cold Moons (Phoneme Media, 2017), which composer David R. Scott subsequently translated into a choral symphony. In 2018, Meg translated an anthology in honor of the world’s first democratically elected woman president, Vigdís Finnbogadóttir (2019), and collaborated with Sigurðsson on an Icelandic poetry anthology for the Cafe Review. Her translation of Þóra Hjörleifsdóttir’s Magma is forthcoming from Grove Atlantic (US) and Picador (UK), and her translation of Auður Jónsdóttir’s Quake is forthcoming from Dottir Press. She is the former director of The Poetry Brothel Reykajvik and producer of the upcoming immersive performance The Poetry Apothecary (Ljóðatek), in celebration of UNESCO Reykjavik’s ten-year anniversary. Her translations have appeared in or are forthcoming from PEN America, Exchanges, Words Without Borders, Asymptote, Gulf Coast, and others.
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