Ragna Sigurðardóttir

Biography

Ragna Sigurðardóttir’s first book came out in 1987 and was called “Stefnumót”, which in Icelandic means “date”. It was a collection of stories and poems, and the author was in her twenty-fifth year.

She was born in Reykjavík on 10 August 1962, and her full name is Ragnheiður. She began as an art student: according to some accounts at the Icelandic School of Arts and Crafts, then in the Netherlands, at the Jan van Eyck Academie. For some time she lived and worked in Denmark. Separately, in Aix-en-Provence in France, she studied the French language and fine art. The available accounts give the sequence of these trips and courses differently, so I will not try to name the exact order.

Her literary path ran alongside her work in the visual arts. After the debut came the collections “Fallegri en flugeldar” (“More beautiful than fireworks”, 1989) and “27 herbergi” (“27 rooms”, 1991). In 1993 her first novel, “Borg” (“City”), appeared, nominated for the Icelandic Literature Prize. It was followed by “Skot” (“Shot”, 1997) and “Strengir” (“Strings”, 2000). She illustrated many of her books herself. For a time she worked at the newspaper Morgunblaðið, writing about art as a critic. She also worked as a literary translator into Icelandic, from Dutch, English, Danish and other languages. She settled in Bessastaðahreppur, near Reykjavík, and works there as a writer and artist.

The novel “Hið fullkomna landslag” (“The Perfect Landscape”, 2009) became her best-known book outside Iceland: in 2012 it was translated into English by Sarah Bowen and published by Amazon Publishing. “Bónusstelpan” (“The Cashier”, 2011) and “Vinkonur” (“Girlfriends”, 2016) followed. Her works have more than once been long-listed for the International Dublin Literary Award.

In 2019 she published a collection of short stories, “Vetrargulrætur” (“Winter Roots”), which critics praised unanimously. The last of the books named here, “Þetta rauða, það er ástin” (“This red thing is love”), was published in 2022.