Guðrún Helgadóttir (7 September 1935 – 23 March 2022) was a prominent writer of

children's literature Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. Modern children's literature is classified in two different ways: genre or the intended age of the reader. Children's ...

in Iceland. She was born in

Hafnarfjörður Hafnarfjörður (), officially Hafnarfjarðarkaupstaður (), is a port town and municipality in Iceland, located about south of Reykjavík. The municipality consists of two non-contiguous areas in the Capital Region, on the southwest coast of t ...

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...

. Her first book, ''Jón Oddur og Jón Bjarni'', appeared in 1974 when she worked at the National Health and Insurance Office. It concerned scheming twins. Several more books in this series were released. In 1981, they became the basis for a film. By the late 1980s she won several awards, and she was nominated for the Hans Christian Andersen Award in 1988. She has written a small amount of drama for adults, but most of her work is for young children. She was also a politician. She became the first woman to be Speaker of the

Althing The Alþingi (''general meeting'' in Icelandic, , anglicised as ' or ') is the supreme national parliament of Iceland. It is one of the oldest surviving parliaments in the world. The Althing was founded in 930 at (" thing fields" or "assemb ...

in 1988 and held that position until 1991. Before that she had served in the legislative assembly and held a position on the

Reykjavík Reykjavík ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Iceland. It is located in southwestern Iceland, on the southern shore of Faxaflói bay. Its latitude is 64°08' N, making it the world's northernmost capital of a sovereign state. With a po ...

City Council representing the People's Alliance.

Works translated into English

* ''A Giant Love Story'' * ''Flumbra: an Icelandic Folktale''

References

External links

Edda.is

Bokmenntir
1935 births 2022 deaths Icelandic writers Icelandic women writers People from Hafnarfjörður Icelandic women in politics People's Alliance (Iceland) politicians Speakers of the Althing Grand Knights of the Order of the Falcon {{Iceland-writer-stub