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íslenska

Guðmundur Andri Thorsson

Bio

Guðmundur Andri Thorsson was born in Reykjavík on December 31st 1957. He graduated from M.S. high school in 1978 and with a B.A. degree in Icelandic and comparative literature from The University of Iceland in 1983. He did his Cand. mag studies at the same school from 1983 - 1985.

Guðmundur Andri worked as a journalist and literary critic at DV newspaper and Þjóðviljinn for some time and for years hosted his own radio program, Andrarímur, at The Icelandic National Radio. He was editor of literary journal Tímarit Máls og menningar from 1986 - 1989 and again from 2008 to 2017. He also worked as an editor for Mál og menning publishing house (later Edda) from 1987 - 2004 and for Forlagið Publishing from 2008 - 2017. In 2017 Guðmundur Andri became a parliamentarian for the party Samfylkingin. On top of this, Guðmundur Andri plays the guitar and sings with his companions in the band Hinir ástsælu Spaðar.

Guðmundur Andri's first novel, Mín káta angist, was published in 1988 and since then he has sent forward other novels and he has also written a biography about his father, the writer Thor Vilhjálmsson. He has overseen a number of books in his career, as well as translating fiction by foreign authors, among them the novels A Short History of Tractors in Ukranian and Two Caravans by Marina Lewycka. Guðmundur Andri has written a large number of articles on culture and social issues in newspapers and magazines, some of them appeared in his book Ég vildi að ég kynni að dansa (I Wish I Could Dance), published in 1998. He received the DV Cultural Prize for Literature for his novel Íslenski draumurinn in 1991. The book was also nominated for The Icelandic Literature Prize in the same year. The novel Íslandsförin var nominated for the same prize in 1996.  Guðmundur Andri received an award from the National Broadcasing Company's Writers' Fund in 2013. Some of his work has been published in translations, such as the novels Valeyrarvalsinn and Sæmd.