As a young woman Asta Sigurdardottir (1930-1971) displayed great talent in the fields of creative writing and visual arts. She attracted considerable attention when her short story Sunnudagskvöld til mánudagsmorguns (Sunday Night to Monday Morning) was published in the magazine Líf og list (Life and Art). In the years that followed, one story after another became focus points for attention; the collection that was published in 1961 became an instant classic.
Sigurdardottir’s poetic and hallucinogenically-beautiful stories, often written from the perspective of a naïve girl or young woman, grapple with violence in mid-twentieth century Iceland from the vantage points of marginalized voices. Her’s stories are considered unique, exhibiting the writer’s singular vision of people and the environment.
“Asta Sigurdardottir’s short stories didn’t only arrive as a meteor into Icelandic post-war literature of the 50s and 60s, the impact can still be seen in the works of writers three generations later. We have all walked through the dark dorrs she opened with her one and only published collection. Scandalous in their time, Asta Sigurdardottir’s stories … with their author’s unflinching look at the fledgling city of Reykjavik, and her compassionate but cool observation of the fate of the marginalised within it – have become recognised as a major contribution to the Icelandic literary canon and as a Nordic classic.”
SJÓN, WRITER
“Sigurðardóttir was one of the first writers to capture, from within a vernacular perspective, a truly urban discourse, growing out of the “raw” experience of the postwar era and a disillusioned view of its expanding bourgeois world. The energy of her stories emanates from a subcultural sphere of poverty and bohemianism, violated childhood, and wounded femininity.”
ASTRADUR EYSTEINSSON, A HISTORY OF ICELANDIC LITERATURE
(published by The University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln & London in 2006)
“Asta’s short stories are so sharp that they might as well have been written today – or tomorrow! The raw nerve that quivers in them cuts through time like a crystal-clear scream. They narrate the essence of being human, an outcast, embodying the roles of a woman and an artist, while encapsulating a soul brimming with desire, resilience, and solitude. Simultaneously, they offer a depiction of society and the enduring toxic structures we witness today. We understand well that Asta is a beacon on the volcanic island, and we eagerly anticipate bringing her luminous insight to Danish readers!”
SUNE DE SOUZA SCHMIDT-HANSEN, EDITORIAL DIRECTOR LINDHARDT&RINGHOF, DENMARK
“She caused a sensation from her early short story debut in the avant-garde magazine Líf og list in 1951 with Sunnudagskvöld til mánudagsmorguns, a description of drunkards, the homeless, and the promiscuous on the fringes of society. The narrative is pithy and metaphorical with elements of fantasy, the language sensuous, erotic, and partly grotesque.”
NORDICWOMENSLITERATURE.NET
“I think that her work marked a turning point in women’s literature in Iceland.”
MEG MATICH, ASYMPTOTEJOURNAL.COM
