Stella Soffía Jóhannesdóttir, Rights Director at Reykjavík Literary Agency, was recently invited to lecture on Icelandic and Nordic literature at the Department of Nordic Studies at Tokai University, just outside Tokyo. The visit was arranged by Yuriko Shibayama, associate professor at Tokai, and Stella made the most of it by meeting Japanese publishers, translators and [...]
Nobel Laureate Olga Tokarczuk Receives the Halldór Laxness International Literary Prize, Calls Iceland “a True Literary Nation” Polish author reflects on Iceland, translation, and a major forthcoming novel during Reykjavik visit Polish Nobel laureate Olga Tokarczuk has received the Halldór Laxness International Literary Prize 2026, Iceland's leading international literary honour, at a ceremony at Nordic [...]
Reykjavík Literary Agency is thrilled to announce a major six-book deal for Steindór Ívarsson's Cold Blood Series, with Gyldendal Astra acquiring Swedish, Danish and Finnish rights to all six titles, including books five and six, which are still to be written. Acquiring editor Emilie Harild Gaardboe said: "We found Drained immensely captivating, with a pace [...]
Reykjavík Literary Agency is delighted to announce that Steindór Ívarsson, one of Iceland's most popular authors, has joined the agency for rights representation. Steindór writes across two registers with equal confidence: upmarket commercial fiction and crime. He has been nominated for the Icelandic Crime Fiction Award twice and for the Icelandic Audiobook Awards seven times. [...]
Einar Mar Gudmundsson's semi-autobiographical novel From Head to Toe, newly published in Danish by Lindhardt og Ringhof, has received a warm and thoughtful critical reception across the Danish press. The novel follows Harald, an Icelandic poet who arrives in 1980s Copenhagen ostensibly to study literature, but instead immerses himself in the city's literary underground, befriending figures [...]
Eirikur Orn Norddahl’s novel The Natural Laws has just been praised in a review by Göteborgs-Posten. The newspaper highlights the author’s imaginative approach to depicting the Icelandic town of Isafjorður, remarking that “Eirikur Orn Norddahl approaches Isafjordur in a way that makes me think of Gabriel García Márquez’s fictional Macondo, Thomas Mann’s stylized Davos, and [...]
We are pleased to announce that Gyldendal in Denmark has pre-empted Crosswind, the debut novel by Icelandic author Einar Lovdahl. The Danish editor Eva Magelund Krarup has expressed Gyldendal's deep admiration for the novel, praising its excellent writing and its ability to tell a deeply moving and beautifully crafted story about human relationships. Crosswind explores [...]
The King and the Clockmaker by Arnaldur Indridason was recently awarded the title of Best Historical Novel of 2024 in Germany. The honor was granted by the German literary magazine Histo Couch, which has been active since 2006 and is known for its extensive coverage of historical fiction. In its ruling, the jury praised the [...]
It’s exciting to announce that Asta Sigurðardottir’s acclaimed collection of stories, Nothing to be Rescued, has just been published in German by Guggolz Verlag, translated by Tina Flecken, with a foreword by Dagný Kristjánsdóttir. This is the first time Sigurðardottir’s work is available in German, and it’s already receiving great attention from critics. The German [...]
We are thrilled to announce that the incredible and award-winning trilogy The Sixty Kilo Saga by Hallgrimur Helgason has been acquired by W.W. Norton & Company in the US! Elianna Kan at Regal Hoffmann & Associates negotiated the deal on behalf of RLA. Nneoma Amadiobi, editor at W.W. Norton, shared her excitement, saying, "I fell [...]