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Contributor

Meg Matich

Contributor

Meg Matich

Meg Matich has received support for her literary translation work from PEN, Fulbright, the Icelandic Literature Center, and others, and frequently collaborates with UNESCO. She received a PEN/Heim Translation Prize for her translation of Magnús Sigurðsson’s Cold Moons (Phoneme Media, 2017), which composer David R. Scott subsequently translated into a choral symphony. In 2018, Meg translated an anthology in honor of the world’s first democratically elected woman president, Vigdís Finnbogadóttir (2019), and collaborated with Sigurðsson on an Icelandic poetry anthology for the Cafe Review. Her translation of Þóra Hjörleifsdóttir’s Magma is forthcoming from Grove Atlantic (US) and Picador (UK), and her translation of Auður Jónsdóttir’s Quake is forthcoming from Dottir Press. She is the former director of The Poetry Brothel Reykajvik and producer of the upcoming immersive performance The Poetry Apothecary (Ljóðatek), in celebration of UNESCO Reykjavik’s ten-year anniversary. Her translations have appeared in or are forthcoming from PEN America, Exchanges, Words Without Borders, Asymptote, Gulf Coast, and others.

Articles by Meg Matich

Quake
By Auður Jónsdóttir
Eyes gape at me over cups of coffee, forkfuls of delicate shrimp.
Translated from Icelandic by Meg Matich
It’s difficult to calculate the influence of the missus of the night
By Bergrún Anna Hallsteinsdóttir
it’s difficult to appraise the unseeable
Translated from Icelandic by Meg Matich
Multimedia
Sinkings
By Haukur Ingvarsson
the glacier is black / polar bears run on hot sand
Translated from Icelandic by Meg Matich
Multimedia
Magma
By Thora Hjórleifsdóttir
He gets irritated, even seems hurt, if I put on makeup, and he asks accusingly, “Who are you doing that for?”
Translated from Icelandic by Meg Matich
MultimediaMultilingual
Evolution
By Magnús Sigurðsson
Let me / help you / said the ape.
Translated from Icelandic by Meg Matich
Black Sea
By Magnús Sigurðsson
The dark kaiser’s ship, / deep-keeled, cuts the water
Translated from Icelandic by Meg Matich
Austurvöllur on the Day of the Wake
By Kristín Svava Tómasdóttir
Bums roll around broken-legged in the grass.
Translated from Icelandic by Meg Matich
Another Letter to Mister Brown
By Kristín Svava Tómasdóttir
You are the main man, Mister Brown / I am just a victim of circumstance
Translated from Icelandic by Meg Matich
Fragments from the Guidebook of the Dead
By Gyrðir Elíasson
There will come a time when / the planet will have had enough
Translated from Icelandic by Meg Matich
Mountain Hike
By Gyrðir Elíasson
the blue planet swam in the half-twilight of evening
Translated from Icelandic by Meg Matich
Jerking Out of Rotation: Four Icelandic Poets
By Meg Matich
Given that its language is spoken by fewer than 350,000 people across the world, Iceland manages to publish an astonishing volume of poetry.
Bus Sequence
By Arngunnur Árnadóttir
Each shared bus ride was like a ritual
Translated from Icelandic by Meg Matich