Janice Balfour was born in Scotland and relocated to Iceland in 1972. She studied literature and Italian at the University of Iceland, and started translating articles and texts for museums shortly thereafter. In addition to Bragi Ólafsson's Pets (forthcoming from Open Letter), she has translated two collections of short stories by Gyrdir Elíasson (currently unpublished in English). She currently works for the Icelandic Red Cross Association.