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. In addition to conventional literary genres, modern children's literature is classified by the intended age of the reade ...

and politician 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 (Iceland), Capital Region, on the s ...

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

. 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 had won several awards, and was nominated for the

Hans Christian Andersen Award The Hans Christian Andersen Awards are two literary awards given by the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY), recognising one living author and one living illustrator for their "lasting contribution to children's literature". Th ...

in 1988. She was also awarded the honorary Saga Stone from IBBY for her contributions. She has written a small amount of drama for adults, but most of her work is for young children. As a politician, she became the first woman to be Speaker of the

Althing The (; ), anglicised as Althingi or Althing, is the Parliamentary sovereignty, supreme Parliament, national parliament of Iceland. It is the oldest surviving parliament in the world. The Althing was founded in 930 at ('Thing (assembly), thing ...

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 city, capital and largest city in Iceland. It is located in southwestern Iceland on the southern shore of Faxaflói, the Faxaflói Bay. With a latitude of 64°08′ N, the city is List of northernmost items, the worl ...

City Council, representing the

People's Alliance People's Alliance may refer to: * People's Alliance ( ''Volksunie''), Belgian political party which split in 2001 into the Nieuw-Vlaamse Alliantie and Spirit * People's Alliance (Bulgaria), a Bulgarian party from 1921 to 1923 * 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