Auður Jónsdóttir: Stories out of the Chaos
–Iceland
Born 1973 in Reykjavík. Writer and journalist, one of the strongest female voices in contemporary Icelandic literature. Writing is in her blood; her grandfather is the Nobel laureate Halldór Laxness. With the novel Fólkið í kjallaranum [2004, People in the Cellar], she won the Icelandic Literary Prize, and for her autobiographical book Ósjálfrátt [2012, Unwittingly], she won the Icelandic Prize for Literature Written by Women. Through the stories of Eyja, an aspiring writer, her mother, an alcoholic, and her grandmother, the wife of a Nobel laureate, she discusses Icelandic society in the twentieth century. She was also nominated for the prestigious Nordic Council Prize for Literature for both books. In her books, she combines fiction and reality, tells about compassion and human imperfection with humor. "Writing gives me at least some control over life because I find stories in all the chaos," she says.