On January 9, join us for a book talk with Icelandic author Brynja Hjálmsdóttir and ASF Translation Prizewinner Rachel Britton for a discussion on A Woman Looks Over Her Shoulder, out now from Circumference Press!
In A Woman Looks Over Her Shoulder, one woman lives in a glass ball that is being shaken by someone else. This book of poems, however, is always shaking itself up, leaping between the extreme and the daily, the gross and the delicious, between being scared and being scary. These surreal, visceral, and somehow polite poems explore what it can be like to be a woman and to slither through and away from threat to find voice and form and power, no matter how strange. The apocalyptic utopia we arrive at in this book—The Whore’s City—is a perfect model to move to in one’s head: feminist, funny, odd, and a little disgusting, all towards transformation.
“A sly, refreshing, and vivid book” (Emily Hunt)
“A strange and compelling book which relentlessly pokes at and pokes fun at the I/thou dynamic of Women and Men in our culture” (Matthew Rohrer)
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Brynja Hjálmsdóttir was born in Reykjavík, Iceland. She is the author of two books of poetry and a novel. Her first book, Okfruman, was awarded Poetry Book of the Year by the Icelandic Booksellers’ Choice Awards and was nominated for the Icelandic Women’s Literary Award. Kona lítur við (A Woman Looks over Her Shoulder) was nominated for the Maístjarnan Poetry Award. In 2022, Hjálmsdóttir received the Jóns úr Vör poetry prize and the Vigdís Finnbogadóttir Encouragement Award. Her work has been translated into six languages.
Rachel Britton is a writer and translator from New York, based in Iceland. She holds a BA in English and Creative Writing from the State University of New York at Geneseo and is pursuing an MA in Translation Studies at the University of Iceland. She has received support from the American-Scandinavian Foundation, the Fulbright Commission, the Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies, and the Icelandic Literature Center.