A Woman Looks Over Her Shoulder (Circumference Books, 2024) by Icelandic poet Brynja Hjálmsdóttir, is a three-part surrealist journey that explores women's experiences through and of place—in sewing clubs, swampy garages, radioactive pools, and snowglobes—invoking Icelandic mythology to satirize modern society and envision a world in which "the coffee is always hot / and the doors always open".
Visit Circumference Books for more information.
Poets & Writers interviews Brynja and Rachel about the book and the process of writing and translating it.
On Electric Literature, Rachel interviews Brynja about the book, the Icelandic literary landscape, the women’s rights movement in Iceland, and utopia.
Translations
“The Fjallkona’s Address” and “When Day Never Breaks The Day Never Breaks” by Brynja Hjálmsdóttir in Gulf Coast 36.1 Winter/Spring 2023
“Procedure” from A Woman Looks Over Her Shoulder by Brynja Hjálmsdóttir on the Asymptote Journal blog
“Mollusk”, “Empty Trough”, and “Radiant” from A Woman Looks Over Her Shoulder by Brynja Hjálmsdóttir in Scandinavian Review
“When Day Never Breaks The Day Never Breaks” by Brynja Hjálmsdóttir in Solen som sover - Nordens Allerbedste Pensumløse Poesi 2023, an anthology of the best poems of the year from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Iceland, selected by young poetry enthusiasts in the Nordic countries.
Poems, Essays, Stories
Poems:
“álfagjá rift valley” in Salt Hill, issue 45
“Galaxy 3C 75 as Dependency” in Glass: A Journal of Poetry
“Snow Child” in Gandy Dancer
Essays:
“Watershed” in The Vertical
“Masks” in Gandy Dancer
Stories:
“Bare” in Gandy Dancer
