2026 Translator Triptych Bundle (Iceland)

Curated by Lytton Smith

This three-book bundle includes our 2026 Translator Triptych titles—a collection of writers from Iceland:

Boudoir by Sigrún Pálsdóttir (tr. Lytton Smith)

The Strongest Woman in the World by Steinunn G. Helgadóttir (tr. Larissa Kyzer)

12 Women + Under a Volcano by Svava Jakobsdóttir (tr. Esja Alyssa Matich)

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About the Authors:

Sigrún Pálsdóttir is an Icelandic writer and historian. She completed a PhD in the History of Ideas at the University of Oxford in 2001, after which she was a research fellow at the University of Iceland. She was the editor of Saga, the principal peer-reviewed journal for Icelandic history, from 2008 to 2016. Pálsdóttir’s work has been nominated for the Icelandic Literary Prize, the Icelandic Women’s Literature Prize, the Hagþenkir Non-fiction Prize and the DV Culture Prize. Her book Sigrún og Friðgeir (Uncertain Seas) won the Icelandic Booksellers’ Prize in 2013, and her second novel Embroidery (available from Open Letter, as is History. A Mess) was awarded the European Union Prize for Fiction 2021.

Steinunn G. Helgadóttir (b.1952) is a visual artist and well-known Icelandic poet and prose writer. She received The Icelandic Women’s Literature Prize 2016 for her novel Voices From the Radio Operator’s House. Helgadóttir’s work has been exhibited at solo and group art exhibitions around the world. She has also curated numerous art exhibitions in several museums and galleries in Iceland. 

Svava Jakobsdóttir (1930–2004) was one of Iceland’s leading contemporary authors and her short stories, often depicting the lives of women, hold a special place in Icelandic literature. Jakobsdóttir was also acclaimed as a playwright, literary scholar, and a novelist.

About the Translators:

Lytton Smith is a poet, professor, and translator from the Icelandic. His most recent translations include works by Kristín Ómarsdóttir, Jón Gnarr, Ófeigur Sigurðsson, Bragi Ólafsson, and Guðbergur Bergsson. His most recent poetry collection, The All-Purpose Magical Tent, was published by Nightboat. Having earned his MFA and PhD from Columbia University, he currently teaches at SUNY Geneseo.

Larissa Kyzer is a writer and Icelandic-English literary translator. Her translation work has earned her the American-Scandinavian Foundation’s Nadia Christensen Translation Prize, the Icelandic Bookseller Association’s Incentive Award, and a Pushcart nomination. She has also received support from the NEA, the European Union Prize for Literature, Fulbright, the American-Scandinavian Foundation, the Icelandic Literature Center, Reykjavík UNESCO City of Literature, and Finland’s Kone Foundation. Larissa is on the steering committee of the National Writers Union's Literary Translators Division, a member of the Icelandic Writers Union, and on the board of the American Literary Translators Association. She splits her time between Brooklyn and Reykjavík.

Esja Alyssa Matich has received support for her literary translation work from PEN, Fulbright, the Icelandic Literature Center, and others, and frequently collaborates with UNESCO. She received a PEN/Heim Translation Prize for her translation of Magnús Sigurðsson’s Cold Moons (Phoneme Media, 2017), which composer David R. Scott subsequently translated into a choral symphony. In 2018, Esja translated an anthology in honor of the world’s first democratically elected woman president, Vigdís Finnbogadóttir (2019). She is the former director of The Poetry Brothel Reykjavik and producer of the upcoming immersive performance The Poetry Apothecary (Ljóðatek), in celebration of UNESCO Reykjavik’s ten-year anniversary. Her translations have appeared in or are forthcoming from PEN America, Exchanges, Words Without Borders, Asymptote, Gulf Coast, and others.

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