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Education

 

2008-2016

PhD degree in Comparative Literature from the Faculty of Icelandic and Comparative Cultural Studies at the University of Iceland. The dissertation was called Literal Animals: An exploration of animal worlds through language, culture and narrative and supervised by Dr. Guðni Elísson. The doctoral committee included Drs. Robert Charles Jones and Kari Weil. The defense opponents were Drs. Susan McHugh and Robert McKay. The dissertation was successfully defended on August 25th, 2016.

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2005-2006

MA-degree in Film Studies within the Department of Media and Culture at the University of Amsterdam. The thesis project was called Animal Horror: An investigation into animal rights, horror cinema and the double standards of violent human behaviour and was supervised by mw. drs. F.J. Jonquiere. Graduated with distinction.

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2002-2005

BA-degree in Comparative Literature within the Department of Icelandic and Comparative Cultural Studies at the University of Iceland. Minored in Art Theory. The thesis project was called Silhouettes in a black-and-white world: criminal culture, romance and the femme fatale in Frank Miller’s Sin City and was supervised by Úlfhildur Dagsdóttir.

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Bibliography​

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Fiction

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2024

Lake Of Fire. Horror. Vaka-Helgafell.

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2023

Mystic Mountain #3: Starlight. Children’s fantasy. Reykjavík: Vaka-Helgafell.

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2022

Mystic Mountain #2: Night Frost. Children’s fantasy. Reykjavík: Vaka-Helgafell.

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2021

Mystic Mountain #1: Witches’ Brew. Children’s fantasy. Reykjavík: Vaka-Helgafell.

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2020

Dream-Disa. Young adult novel. Reykjavík: Vaka-Helgafell.

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The short story “The Mound” was written especially for Children’s Book Day 2020 and the IBBY in Iceland association. It was read in schools around the country.

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2019

Slaughter Season. Novel. Reykjavík: Vaka-Helgafell.

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Fimbulvetur. Young adult novella. Kópavogur: Menntamálastofnun.

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2017

Devil-Disa. Young adult novel. Reykjavík: Vaka-Helgafell.

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2016

The Heroic Three. Children‘s book. Kópavogur: Menntamálastofnun.

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2015

Dead-Disa. Young adult novel. Reykjavík: Vaka-Helgafell. Nominated for the Icelandic Literary Prize for Children's Fiction.

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The Robot in the Rye. Children‘s book. Kópavogur: Menntamálastofnun.

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2012

The Stone Creatures. Children’s novel. Reykjavík: Vaka-Helgafell.

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2008

The Stone Animals. Children’s novel. Received the Icelandic Children’s Literature Award. Reykjavík: Vaka-Helgafell.

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2005

“Vetrarsaga” (“A Winter Tale”). Icelandic. Horror short story. Received the Icelandic Criminal Society Award (Gaddakylfan). Reykjavík: Mannlíf (June).

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2000

Writer and director for the short film “Glæponar hringborðsins” (“Crooks of the Round Table”), produced by the Icelandic Film School as part of the project RRX. The film was shown on RÚV (Icelandic National Television) in January 2001.

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Academia​

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2022

“Life as a Lynx: a Digital Animal Story”, a chapter on animal representation in video games. Published in Squirreling: Human-Animal Studies in the Northern-European Region. Published by the Ratatoskr Research Group for Literary Animal Studies. Edited by Amelie Björck, Claudia Lindén and Ann-Sofie Lönngren. Stockholm: Södertörn University.

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2020

“Introduction” to the Icelandic translation of J.M. Coetzee’s The Lives of Animals. Reykjavík: Hið íslenska bókmenntafélag.

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“Visible and invisible animals in Icelandic animal fiction”. An article about the representation of farm animals in Icelandic animal stories for Ritið (The Work) 1/2020, a peer-reviewed journal published by the Centre for Research in the Humanities at the University of Iceland.

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2016

Literal Animals. An exploration of animal worlds through language, culture and narrative. Dissertation towards the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. August 2016, Háskólaprent.

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“Realist animals and natural science fiction: Animal stories in the aftermath of Darwinism”. An article for Ritið (The Work) 1/2016, based on my dissertation.

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“Animal pleasures: Some thoughts on zoophilia and bestiality”. An article about zoophilia, bestiality and ethics, based on lectures from my course on animal studies, published in Ritið (The Work) 2/2016.

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2010

In Defense of Cats. A short book about the status and role of cats (and other animals) in society. Includes a brief philosophical dialogue by myself and five cat stories by other authors, selected and edited by myself. Reykjavík: JPV.

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2009

“Multimodal expressions of the HUMAN VICTIM IS ANIMAL metaphor in horror films“, chapter co-written by Dr. Charles Forceville and published in the collection Multimodal Metaphor, edited by Charles Forceville og Eduardo Urios-Aparisi. Based in part on my M.A.-thesis. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter.

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Lectures and Teaching

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Conferences and Selected Invited Papers

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2023

Guest panelist at the International Children’s and Youth Literature Festival, Deep in the Moorland, in Reykjavík.

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Guest panelist at the Midgard fan festival in Reykjavík.

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2019

Presentation at the the inaugural Ratatoskr Research Group for Literary Animal Studies symposium at Södertörn University in December: “Mother Lynx and Asshole Goose: Animal Stories in a Digital Landscape”, eventually published in the collected volume Squirreling (2022).

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Presentation in April at the literature department at Södertörn University in Stockholm about realistic animal stories, entitled ““But it was only an old raven”: Realism and rights in 19th century Nordic animal stories”.

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2018

Presentation in September at the literature department at Uppsala University about animal stories, the realist movement and post-darwinism, entitled “Explorers of an unknown world: Realist animal fiction in a post-Darwinian landscape”.

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2016

Presentation at Fellow Travelers: An Animal Studies Conference at Wesleyan University, sponsored by Animals and Society Institute and Wesleyan Animal Studies, September 30th, about animals in computer games.

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Presentation in October at Mýrin, the International Children‘s Literature Festival in Reykjavík, about mythological themes in Icelandic children‘s literature, as part of a panel on “Myths and Fantasy”.

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Guest speaker at the Winter Word Festival in Strömstad, Sweden, in February 2016, as part of a panel on boundaries within children‘s literature, as well being part of the North Sea Writer‘s Exchange residency in Strömstad for the last week of February.

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2012

“Literal Animals: Animal Stories as Literature of Dissent“, a talk on the subject of my dissertation, given at the Allbritton Center at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, on June 5th.

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2011

“The Ethics of Animal Stories”, Human-Animal conference at the 20th/21st Century French and Francophone Studies International Colloquium, University of San Francisco.

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2010

“The Unavoidable Schizophrenia of Animal Advocacy”, presented as part of the panel “The Private Lives of Animals and Advocates” (Performance and Philosophy Working Group) at the PSi16 conference in Toronto, July 2010.

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Teaching:

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2013-2024

Supervisor of a number of BA theses in comparative literature and film studies at the Department of Icelandic and Comparative Cultural Studies at the University of Iceland as well as some at the Department of Design and Architecture at the Icelandic Academy of the Arts. Topics included animal studies, computer game studies and horror studies.

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2023

Lectures in schools around Iceland as part of the "Writers visit schools" program held yearly by the Writers' Union of Iceland. The lecture was called "Do we always need a bad guy?" and was written in collaboration with Bergrún Íris Sævarsdóttir, author and illustrator. 

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2017

Guest lecturer for the course “Compass” at the Iceland University of the Arts, about the representation of animals in visual arts and art history.

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Lectured in schools around the country as part of the "Writers visit schools" program held yearly by the Writers' Union of Iceland. The lecture was called "Building Your World" and was written in collaboration with fellow author Ragnhildur Hólmgeirsdóttir.

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2016-2017

Module leader and sole lecturer for three undergraduate courses at the University of Iceland (one on animal studies, one on weird tales and one on art and film) as well as a post-graduate course on creative writing and fantasy fiction.

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2016

Guest presenter and lecturer for the course “Samtal” (“Dialogue”) in January at the Iceland University of the Arts, under the theme of “Animals”.

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2013

Guest speaker at the Department of Design and Architecture at the Iceland Academy of the Arts on the subject of animals in art history, October 7th.

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Lectured in schools around the country as part of the "Writers visit schools" program held yearly by the Writers' Union of Iceland. The lecture was called "Writing As A Kid" and was written in collaboration with fellow author Arndís Þórarinsdóttir.

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2010

Module leader and sole lecturer for undergraduate courses “Animals in text and image” (spring 2010/2013) and “Predators and other contemporary monsters” (fall 2010) at the Department of Icelandic and Comparative Cultural Studies at the University of Iceland.

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Awards and Accolades​

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Fiction / Screenwriting

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2023

Awarded a screenwriting grant from the Icelandic Film Center for adapting Dead-Disa as a film screenplay. Also sponsored by the Icelandic Film Center to attend the 2023 Cinekid Script Lab to work on the Dead-Disa screenplay.

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2013-2024

Awarded a yearly stipend (Listamannalaun – The Artists‘ Salary) by the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture in Iceland to work on writing fiction: received a stipend for 3 months in 2013-2015, 6 months in 2016-2017 and 2019-2020, and 9 months in 2021-2024.

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2015

Nominated for the Icelandic Literary Prize, children‘s category, for Dead-Disa.

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2008

The Icelandic Children’s Literature Award for debut novel The Stone Animals. Reykjavík: Vaka-Helgafell.

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2005

The Icelandic Criminal Society Award – Gaddakylfan – for horror short story “Vetrarsaga” (“A Winter Tale”). Reykjavík: Mannlíf (June).

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Research:

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2017

Received a two year research grant from RANNÍS, The Icelandic Centre for Research, for my post-doctoral project “Icelandic Animal Stories – an International Investigation”.

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2015

Received a 6 month stipend for writing a brief introduction to animal ethics in Icelandic by RANNÍS and the Non-Fiction Writer‘s Fund (Starfslaunasjóður sjálfstætt starfandi fræðimanna).

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2012

Received the Animals and Society Institute and Wesleyan Animal Studies Summer Fellowship. A summer spent in Middletown, Connecticut, working on dissertation under the guidance of Prof. Kari Weil and Prof. Lori Gruen.

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2009-2016

The University of Iceland Research Fund. Three year grant for work on dissertation.

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Other Creative Endeavours​

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2021-2024

Lead writer for the Icelandic gaming company Parity, working on the Icelandic fantasy game Island of Winds, inspired by Icelandic folklore.

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2013-2021

Regular radio film critic for RÚV - The Icelandic National Broadcasting Service.

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2010-2015

Regular film columnist for Icelandic cultural magazines Spássían and Hugrás.

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2010-2024

Various projects for the Reykjavík International Film Festival and the Bíó Paradís cinematheque, including program
coordination, Q&As, catalogue writing and programming special events (e.g. midnight movies, retrospectives and film concerts).

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2005-9

Regular articles and monthly columns about culture and film for Lesbók Morgunblaðsins (weekly cultural supplement for the Icelandic newspaper Morgunblaðið. The supplement was suspended in 2010.

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2004-2024+

Pianist and composer for neo-classical chamber punk trio Malneirophrenia. The debut album, M, was self-released in 2011, follow by a remix E.P. in 2014.

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