Pétur Gunnarsson was born in Reykjavik, Iceland, on June 15th, 1947. He received his Masters degree (maîtrise) in philosophy from Université d´Aix-Marseille in France in 1975.

The novel punktur punktur komma strik appeared in 1976 to acclaim, the first of four books about the boy Andri. The last one, Sagan öll (The Whole Story), was nominated for the Nordic Counsils Literature Prize in 1987. Pétur has sent forward a number of other novels, three of which have been nominated for the Icelandic Literature Prize. His two volume biography about an Icelandi author, Þórbergur Þórðarson (1888-1974), received the prize for non-fiction in Iceland in 2009.

Pétur has also translated works by foreign authors, among them Flaubert´s Madame Bovary for which he received the DV Cultural Prize in 1996. Among works he has translated is Georges Perec´s (Les Choses) and the first volume of Proust´s A La Recherche du Temps Perdu. His translation of Tristes tropiques by Claude Lévi-Strauss appeared in 2011.

Pétur has also done work for radio and television, his most recent one is a four episode t.v. program about the 18th century in Iceland and Europe.

Pétur has written a number of articles on literature and culture and taken an active part in social debates in Iceland. A selection of his articles has been published in three volumes.

Pétur served as president of the Writer´s Union of Iceland 2006-2010.

Works by Gunnarsson in translations:

In Swedish:

Punkt punkt komma tankstreck (Forum, 1978)

In French:

Point point virgule tiret (Joseph K, 1998)

In German:

punkt punkt komma strich (Weidle, 2011)

ich meiner mir mich (Weidle, 2012)

 

For more info:

http://www.sagenhaftes-island.is/en/icelandic-literature/authors/nr/358

 

Artist-in-residence September 2012