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íslenska

Kristín Steinsdóttir

Bio

Kristín Steinsdóttir was born in Seyðisfjörður on March 11, 1946. After graduating from highschool in Akureyri, she studied at the Iceland Teacher’s College and received her teacher’s diploma in 1968. She was a teacher in Reykjavík for three years and then went to Copenhagen to study Danish and Danish literature for one winter. From 1972 – 1978 Kristín lived in Göttingen in Germany where she studied Danish and German as well as being a homemaker and mother. In 1978 she moved to Norway with her family and lived there until moving back to Iceland a year later.

Kristín became a teacher in the town of Akranes, first at the elementary level and then, after having finished a B.A. degree in Danish and German from the University of Iceland, at the highschool level. Since 1988, she has been a full time writer. 

Kristín sat on the board of The Writer’s Union of Iceland from 1993 – 2001 and became its President in 2010. She was Chairman of The Icelandic Association of Children’s Book Writers (SÍUNG) from 1999 – 2003. Kristín Steinsdóttir has for the most part written books for children and young people, as well as translating books from German. She has also written for the stage, together with her sister Iðunn Steinsdóttir, and published novels for adult readers.

Kristín is one of Iceland’s best known authors of children’s books and has received numerous recognitions for her work. Her first book, Fransbrauð með sultu (Jam on White) from 1987 received the Icelandic Children’s Literature Prize the year. Her book, Engill í Vesturbænum (An Angel in the Neighbourhood) won the Reykjavík Children’s Literature Prize in 2003, the Nordic Children’s Literature Prize in the same year and has been awarded by IBBY in Sweden and Estonia, as well as by the West-Nordic Council. In 2007 Kristín received The Icelandic Broadcasting Service Writer’s Fund Award. Kristín’s books have been translated to other languages.

Kristín Steinsdóttir lives in Reykjavík. She is married with three grown children.

Publisher: Vaka-Helgafell.