Nominations for Nordic Council Literature Prize

18. December, 2012

Nominations for the Nordic Council Literature Prize 2013 have been announced.

Iceland has two of the 14 nominations, the novel Konan við 1000º (The Woman at 1000°) by Hallgrímur Helgason, and Guðmundur Andri Thorsson‘s short story collection, Valeyrarvalsinn (The Valeyri Waltz).

This is the third time that Hallgrímur Helgason is nominated for the Nordic Council's Prize for Literature, previously for 101 Reykjavík in 1999 and then for Rokland (Stormland) in 2007. The Woman at 1000°, published in 2011, tells the story of Herbjörg María Björnsson, who has just endured her 80th birthday in solitude and the thought of yet another holiday season without company has prompted her decision: she wants to go before Christmas. She has opted for cremation, and while waiting for her oven to reach 1000°C, she recounts her life and plans her final acts of revenge. Hallgrímur Helgason's novel is a journey through the history of the twentieth century, moving and idiosyncratic.

Guðmundur Andri‘s book, The Valeyri Waltz, also published in 2011, includes sixteen closely-linked stories, all of which take place during the same two minutes in a small fishing village in Iceland. Thorsson presents people of flesh and blood, familiar folk who battle with life and an existence which is at times grey and cruel, at times incomparably wonderful. In chiseled and beautiful prose, characters and sentiments spring to life, resulting in an entertaining and lively short story cycle where the great is reflected in the small, the whole of Iceland in a little village.

Each Nordic country nominates up to two works of literature for the prize. Icelandic author Gyrðir Elíasson received the 2011 Nordic Council Literature Prize for the short story collection Milli trjánna (Between the Trees, published in 2009). The winner of the 2013 Nordic Council Literature Prize will be announced next spring.