Bio
Björn Þorláksson was born in Húsavík, north Iceland, on April 28, 1965. He grew up with his parents and three older sisters on the farm Vogar in the Mývatn district. After finishing his grade schol at Laugar in Reykjadalur, Björn studied at the Akureyri College, graduating in 1985. After that he studied Icelandic and literature at The University of Iceland and did hotel management studies in Switzerland.
Björn did a number of agricultural, trade and service jobs in his younger years, after which he made piano playing his profession for a while. He started working as a journalist in the early nineties and has worked for all the major Icelandic newspapers, as well as the National Broadcasting Service and Stöð 2 TV.
Björn published his first work in 2001, the short story collection Við (Us), followed by some novels.
From the Author
Why Do I Write?
My mother insists that I was three years old when I put together my first verse. The subject was fox hunting, which I found exciting in those years. This is how it goes:
Ég ligg í leyni með riffilinn minn
og skýt allar tófur sem ég finn.
Svo kemur ein út,
þá hrekk ég í kút.
[I lie in wake with my rifle
and shoot at all the foxes I can see.
Then one comes out,
And I am startled]
Thus, the young poet had a dream, at the mere age of three, of becoming a great fox hunter, but at the critical moment (when foxy comes out of its lair), he retreats. And this wasn’t the only time he who holds this pen retreated from great plans. This was not the last time the poetic speaker was startled at the wrong moment, alone and with not one fox in hand.
Why does the boy child make up this little verse in the summer of ´68 about its big plans that came to nothing? Why did the young poet write the verse? In order to be funny? Or to make peace with his destiny?
It has been described as fishing, this thing about searching and hunting for words, and as a farmer’s son, raised on the banks of Mývatn Lake, it is clear that fishing is in my blood. I hunted for trout each day of my youth, but lately it has become a major event to catch one for a meal. But what the poet and the fisherman have in common is that they lay their nets, bring in the catch and work it for others to feast on. Tending to the catch, as well as the words, usually takes up most of the time. It’s only when this is finished that people can be invited to the feast. Whether it is a vibrant new story or a fat trout.
Why do I write? Tomorrow is a new day and it will probably bring with it different answers to this question than the current one. We are always changing in our relentless search for an ever changing truth. I can for instance say that I have completely changed my mind about fox hunting and have long since come to terms with the fact that I will never shoot as much as one single fox.
Björn Þorláksson, 2008
Awards
Awards
2010 - The Resident Artist of Akureyri