Auður Jónsdóttir

Auður Jónsdóttir (born 30 March 1973) is an Icelandic author. Her novels deal with family, particularly mother-daughter relationships.

Career Auður's debut novel, Bliss (Stjórnlaus Lukka), was nominated for the Icelandic Literary Prize in 1998.

In 2002 she wrote the children's book One self is the strangest of all (Skrýtnastur er maður sjálfur), a portrait of her grandfather, the Nobel prize-winning author Halldor Laxness.

The People in the Basement won the 2004 Icelandic Literary Prize followed by a nomination for Nordic Council's Literature Prize in 2006. It came out and was very well received in Denmark and Sweden in the same year.

Wintersun (Vetrarsól), received positive reviews in Der Spiegel and Hamburger Abendblatt among others.

In 2009, Auður worked at the Reykjavik City Theater as an in-house writer for one year resulting in a play being adapted from The People in the Basement in the following year.

Auður was given a full-year artist salary by The Ministry of Education and Culture for 2023. The stipend amounts to ISK 507,500 ($3,551; €3,354) per month.

Short stories The Wedding (1997) The Fat Mother (2001) The Little lawyer (2002) Casablanca (2003) Ofeig's good advice (2004) The Stories (2006)

Children's books Total Freedom (2001) Skrýtnastur er maður sjálfur (The Strangest Of All Is One Self) (2002)

Plays The People In The Basement (2010)

Adaptations The People In The Basement, Deposit, and Grand Mal are being adapted for the silver screen. Quake, the adaptation of Grand Mal, was well-received when it premiered in Iceland and the United States in 2022. The film rights were sold to Juno Films and Njuta Films, who planned to release the film theatrically in late 2022.

Personal life Auður experienced seizures as a child, which later influenced her epileptic protagonist in Stóri skjálfti. She also had a dog in her childhood. She lived in England for a time as a child.

She has lived in four countries: Barcelona, Spain, Copenhagen, Denmark, Berlin, Germany and England.

She worked in a fish factory in Flateyri in 1995, which would later inform her novel Ósjálfrátt.

Auður divides her time between Berlin and Reykjavik with her family.

Awards and nominations

2016 - The Icelandic Radio (RUV) Award 2015 - Icelandic book sellers prize: Grand Mal 2015 - Icelandic Literary Prize (Nomination): Grand Mal 2014 - Nordic Council Literature Prize (Nomination): Secretaries to the Spirits 2012 - DV Newspaper's Cultural Award (Nomination): Secretaries to the Spirits 2012 - The Women's Literary Award: Secretaries to the Spirits 2011 - Icelandic Theatre Awards, Griman: The People in the Basement (shared with Olafur Egilsson) 2006 - Icelandic Literary Prize (Nomination): Deposit 2006 - Nordic Council Literature Prize (Nomination): The People in the Basement 2004 - Icelandic Literary Prize: The People in the Basement 2002 - Icelandic book sellers prize: The strangest of all is you 2002 - Upplýsing Prize (Librarians): The strangest of all is you 2002 - Icelandic Literary Prize (Nomination): The strangest of all is you 1998 - Icelandic Literary Prize (Nomination): Bliss