On May 9th, I’ll be hosting a translation slam at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe as a part of the PEN World Voices Festival. Translators Larissa Kyzer and K.B. Thors will meet with Icelandic poet and novelist Gerður Kristný and present their translations of one of her poems.
Larissa Kyzer is the translator of “Birds” by Rán Flygenring and Hjörleifur Hjartarson and the forthcoming translation of Kristín Eiríksdóttir‘s novel A Fist or a Heart (“Elín, ýmislegt”), which won the 2017 Icelandic Literary Prize and is nominated for this year’s Nordic Council Literature Prize.
K.B. Thors is the translator of Kristín Svava Tómasdóttir’s poetry collection Stormwarning (“Stormviðvörun”), which was longlisted for the 2019 PEN America Poetry in Translation Literary Award. I interviewed Kristín last year about the book and her and Kara’s cooperation.
Gerður Kristný is a novelist and poetess and a former journalist. In 2010, she won the Icelandic Literature Prize for her poetic novel Bloodhoof (“Blóðhófnir”), a retelling of an Old Norse poem in the Skaldic verse style. I interviewed her last year when her poetic novel Drápa was published in English.