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íslenska

Baldur Óskarsson

Bio

Baldur Óskarsson was born in Hafnarfjörður on March 28, 1932. After finishing his middle school education in Iceland, he was a student at a folk high school in Sweden for one year. He then went to Catalonia, where he studied art history and Spanish literature at Universidad de Barcelona for a year. Baldur was a journalist at the daily Tíminn from 1957 – 1964, and later worked as a news reporter at the National Radio. He was Headmaster of the Reykjavík Art School from 1965 – 1973. He sat on the board of the Icelandic Writer's Union and his literary carreer spanned more than five decades.

His first work, the short story collection Hitabylgja (Heat Wave) was published in 1960. Three years later, he sent forth the novel Dagblað (Newspaper). His first book of poetry, Svefneyjar (Islands of Sleep) appeared in 1966 and since then his preferred avenue was poetry. Baldur published fifteen books of poetry, most recently Langtfrá öðrum grjótum (Faraway From Other Stones) in 2010. The anthology Tímaland (Land of Time), which contains poems in Icelandic and German translation (Tímaland: kvæði = Zeitland: Gedichte), was published in 2000. Baldur was a translator of poetry, mainly of Federico Garcia Lorca. He also wrote on art for magazines and books.

Baldur Óskarsson passed away on April 14th 2013.

Author photo: The Reykjavík Museum of Photography.