About Eiríkur Örn Norðdahl

Eiríkur Örn Norðdahl is an Icelandic poet and the author of three novels. He is also an avid translator of foreign literature. He works with performance and sound-poetry, and regularly appears at poetry and music festivals, as well as dabbling in the dark arts of the concrete. His books in Icelandic have been critically acclaimed, and critics have found reason to compare him to such dissimilar poets as Snorri Sturluson and Vladimir Mayakovsky. In the recent years he has explored the possibilities inherent in the European and North-American avant-garde traditions, and focused on disassembling language into its visual, social and linguistic units. Eiríkur is a founding member of the Nýhil poet cooperative.

In 2010 Eiríkur received a ‘Special Mention’ at the Zebra Poetry Film Festival for his animated poem Höpöhöpö Böks.

In 2008 Eiríkur received the Icelandic Translation Award for his translation of Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem. Among other books he’s translated is Maíkonungurinn – selected poems by Allen Ginsberg and 131.839 slög með bilum, an anthology of foreign contemporary and experimental poetry.

In 2007 Eiríkur received ‘The Red Feather’, an award for erotic writing given by the Krummi Reading Society.

In 2006 Eiríkur received the runner-up prize in Ljóðstafur Jóns úr Vör, Iceland’s most prestigious poetry prize, for his poem Parabólusetning (available here in Jonas Moody’s english translation).

Eiríkur’s most recent book is the novel Gæska (‘Kindness’, 2009). Click here for information in English. His second novel, Eitur fyrir byrjendur (‘Poison for beginners’), was published in Germany, Austria and Swiss in 2010, as Gift für Anfänger, by Berlin-based publishersKozempel & Timm, and is forthcoming in Swedish from Rámus.

Eiríkur’s poetry and essays have been published in various translations, including Polish, Estonian, Slovakian, Swedish, Danish, English, Spanish, German, Finnish, Mandarin and French.

Poems on PennSound.
Poems on UbuWeb.
Poems on Nokturno.
Poems on Fict.is.
Poetry on Youtube.

About Eiríkur Örn Norðdahl at literature.is

About Eiríkur Örn Norðdahl at Sagenhaftes Island

Upper picture: Ave Maria Mõistlik
Lower picture: Aino Huovio. Click on the pictures for hi resolution.