salka gudmundsdottír

Salka Gudmundsdottir (1981) was born in Reykjavik, Iceland, where she currently resides and works as a writer and translator.

Salka‘s original writing has been published in various forms. In 2007, her short story One of the Lads was awarded first prize in the annual crime writing competition run by the Icelandic Crime Association. Her first play Súldarsker (Mizzle Rock) received excellent reviews when it opened in January 2011, among other accolades earning Salka a nomination for best playwright at the Icelandic Theatre Awards 2011. Mizzle Rock was featured in European Theatre Today 2012 as one of the best new plays from Europe. Her one act play And the Children Never Looked Back was staged as part of a Play, a Pie and a Pint at Oran Mor in Glasgow in September 2012 and was later developed into Breaker which was produced at Holden Street Theatres during Adelaide Fringe 2013 and won both a Weekly Fringe Award for Best Theatre and the prestigious Underbelly Edinburgh Award. Breaker was subsequently performed at Underbelly Cowgate throughout the Edinburgh Fringe 2013. A one-act play by Salka ran at the Reykjavik City Theatre from April to June 2013 and she wrote a play for young actors as part of the National Theatre of Iceland’s youth project 2012-2013. Salka’s most recent play is The Elusive Portal, a children’s play produced by Sodid Svid Theatre Company in a 2013 co-production with the National Theatre of Iceland. An upcoming production with theatre group Sokkabandid will open in January 2016.

Salka holds a BA (First Class) in Drama from the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, an MLitt (First Class) in Creative Writing from the University of Glasgow, and an MA (First Class) in Translation Studies from the University of Iceland.

Having worked as a literary translator since her late teens, Salka has translated numerous novels, plays, short stories and television programmes. Her translation of Jane Austen‘s Emma was published by Forlagið in 2012. Her proposed translation of Steinar Bragi‘s The Rafflesia Flower earned her an honorary mention from the Susan Sontag Prize for Translation in 2010. Salka was the Icelandic National Radio’s theatre critic between 2010 and 2012.
 
www.sodidsvid.com

Artist-in-residence October 2015