Ófeigur Sigurðsson, author of Öræfi: The Wasteland, will be at BookPeople on October 19, in conversation with Taisia Kitaiskaia!
Sponsored by the Icelandic Literature Center with support from Iceland Naturally
Ófeigur Sigurðsson was born in Reykjavík in 1975. He is a graduate of the University of Iceland with a degree in philosophy. He made his poetry debut in 2001 with Skál fyrir skammdeginu (Cheers to the Winter Darkness), and published his first novel, Áferð (Texture), in 2005. Since then, he has published six books of poetry and three novels, in addition to his work as an accomplished translator. Sigurðsson was awarded the European Union Prize for Literature in 2011 for his novel, Jon, making him the first Icelander to receive the prize. His novel Öræfi: The Wasteland was published in Iceland in 2014 to great critical and commercial acclaim, and received the Book Merchant’s Prize in 2014 and the Icelandic Literature Prize in 2015. He currently resides in Antwerp, Belgium.
Taisia Kitaiskaia is a Russian-American poet and writer. She is the author of two books: LITERARY WITCHES: A CELEBRATION OF MAGICAL WOMEN WRITERS (Hachette/Seal, 2017), an NPR Best Book of 2017, and ASK BABA YAGA: OTHERWORLDLY ADVICE FOR EVERYDAY TROUBLES (Andrews McMeel, 2017). She has received fellowships from Yaddo and the James A. Michener Center for Writers (MFA in Poetry, 2015), and her poetry has been nominated twice for a Pushcart Prize, most recently by the Beloit Poetry Journal. Her poems can be found in journals such as Gulf Coast, Fence, Black Warrior Review, Crazyhorse, Pleiades, and Guernica, and her prose has appeared on Electric Literature, The Hairpin, Jezebel, and Bitch Media.
ABOUT THE BOOK
“Sigurðsson is without a doubt one of the best writers of his generation.” — Frettabladid Daily
After a grueling solo expedition on the Vatnajökull Glacier, Austrian toponymist Bernhardt Fingerberg returns to civilization, barely alive, and into the care of Dr. Lassi. The doctor, suspicious of his story, attempts to discover his real motives for venturing into the treacherous wastelands of Iceland — but the secrets she unravels may be more dangerous than they’re worth.