Yrsa Þöll Gylfadóttir

Yrsa Þöll Gylfadóttir was born in Reykjavík on the 25th of August, 1982. After living for 5 years in Canada she was mostly brought up in Garðabær. 

She finished her high school diploma from Menntaskólinn við Hamrahlíð in 2002 and subsequently moved to France to study French literature and linguistics, first at the Michel de Montaigne University in Bordeaux and then at the Sorbonne in Paris. After that, Yrsa finished her masters degree in French studies at the University of Iceland while also being an exchange student at the UQAM University in Montréal. Later Yrsa got a teaching certificate for high school level and a degree from The Guiding school of Iceland. 

In addition to her writing, Yrsa Þöll has mostly worked as a guide and a teacher (French and Icelandic for foreigners). Yrsa has also worked as an interpreter and translator, produced programmes for the radio, held writing workshops and taught children and adults board games. 

Yrsa’s first novel was Tregðulögmálið (The Law of Inertia, 2010). Her third novel Strendingar (Prisms, 2020) was nominated for The European Union Prize for Literature.