Valgerður Þóroddsdóttir (born 1989), also known as Vala Thorodds, is an Icelandic

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

publisher Publishing is the activities of making information, literature, music, software, and other content, physical or digital, available to the public for sale or free of charge. Traditionally, the term publishing refers to the creation and distribu ...

, translator and literary

curator A curator (from , meaning 'to take care') is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the particular ins ...

. She is one of the founders and current directors of Meðgönguljóð, a grassroots literary organisation and publisher of poetry based in Iceland. Her work has appeared in print in various anthologies and magazines in Reykjavík, Berlin, Bristol, and Zaragosa. In 2014, Valgerður was nominated on behalf of Iceland to the PEN International New Voices Award.

Personal life

Valgerður was born in Iceland but raised in upstate New York. She returned to Iceland at the age of 17.

Career

Valgerður co-founded and currently serves as a director for two independent publishing companies: Meðgönguljóð (Partus forlag), basked in Reykjavík, Iceland, and Partus Press, based in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. She wrote for magazines in Spain, the UK, Germany and Iceland, and in 2014, she was Iceland's nomination for the ''

PEN International PEN International (known as International PEN until 2010) is a worldwide professional association, association of writers, founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere. The association ...

New Voices Award''. Her first

chapbook A chapbook is a type of small printed booklet that was a popular medium for street literature throughout early modern Europe. Chapbooks were usually produced cheaply, illustrated with crude woodcuts and printed on a single sheet folded into 8, 1 ...

, the booklet-length poem ''Það sem áður var skógur'' (What Once Was Forest), was edited by

Sjón image:Sjon litteratureXchange-2019 DSC09264.jpg, 260px, Sjón at LiteratureXchange Festival ín Aarhus (Denmark 2019) Sigurjón Birgir Sigurðsson (born 27 August 1962), known as Sjón ( ; ; meaning "sight" and being an abbreviation of his firs ...

and published in the chapbook series Meðgönguljóð in Iceland in 2015. Her edition and translation from the Icelandic of the selected poems of

Kristín Ómarsdóttir Kristín Ómarsdóttir (born 1962) is an Icelandic author, poet and playwright. Biography Kristín Ómarsdóttir was born in Reykjavík; she spent her first years in Copenhagen and lived for most of her childhood in Hafnarfjörður. She w ...

, ''Waitress in Fall'', was co-published in the UK in 2018 by

Carcanet Press Carcanet Press is a publisher, primarily of poetry, based in the United Kingdom. Originally a student magazine devised by undergraduates collaborating between Oxford and Cambridge, it was refounded in 1969 by Michael Schmidt. In 2000 it was nam ...

and Partus Press and was selected by ''

The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British Sunday newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of N ...

'' as one of the best poetry books of the year. Thorodd's translation of Ómarsdóttir's novel ''Swanfolk'', which will be published in 2022, was supported by a PEN/Heim Translation Fund Grant.

References

External links

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Valgerður Þóroddsdóttir reads The Sugar of Things
at

Vimeo.com Vimeo ( ) is an American video hosting, sharing, and services provider founded in 2004 and headquartered in New York City. Vimeo focuses on the delivery of high-definition video across a range of devices and operates on a software as a service ...

(in Icelandic with English subtitles) {{DEFAULTSORT:Thoroddsdottir, Valgerdur Valgerdur Thoroddsdottir Valgerdur Thoroddsdottir Living people Valgerdur Thoroddsdottir Valgerdur Thoroddsdottir Valgerdur Thoroddsdottir Valgerdur Thoroddsdottir 1989 births

Personal life

Career

See also

References

External links