Birna Bjarnadóttir, project manager at the Vigdís Finnbogadóttir Institute
Birna Bjarnadóttir returned home to Iceland in 2015 after living in Canada for twelve years, where she led the Icelandic Department at the University of Manitoba. She started work as a project manager at the Vigdís Finnbogadóttir Institute in December of that year and one of her main responsibilities regards collaboration between the University of Iceland and North America. In connection with the opening of the Vigdís International Centre in April 2017, an endowment fund was established at the University in the name of Stephan G. Stephansson, a project overseen by Birna.
"The aim of the fund is to support research collaboration between scholars in Iceland and North America in the field of immigrant literature. It is hoped that it will be possible to establish a teaching and research position at the Centre in memory of Icelandic poets in North America. Along with his wife Adriana, Stephan Vilberg Benediktson, who lives in Mexico, donated the startup capital for the fund in memory of his grandfather Stephan G. Stephansson. The couple Heather Alda and William Ireland from British Columbia and the couple Moorea and Glen Grey from Alberta have also contributed to the fund," says Birna.
Birna Bjarnadóttir
"The Icelandic Literature Center is funding the publication along with the town of Grindavík, Guðbergur's home town. The planned publication date is in spring 2018."
Another of Birna's main responsibilities at the Vigdís Finnbogadóttir Institute in recent semesters has been the publication of the book Heiman og heim (Away from Home and Back Again). "This is a collection of essays on the poetry and translations of Guðbergur Bergsson, written by Icelandic and foreign authors, translators and scholars, including several key European translators of Icelandic literature."
Birna is an expert on Guðbergur's poetry and will be editing the book. Besides the Vigdís International Centre, the Icelandic Literary Society is also involved with the publication. "The Icelandic Literature Center is funding the publication along with the town of Grindavík, Guðbergur's home town. The planned publication date is in spring 2018." Birna is also leading an independent collaborative project of artists and scholars, 'Leiðangurinn á Töfrafjallið' (The Expedition to the Magic Mountain), approaching the subject through art, literature, conversation and action. One of the end goals of the expedition is the publication of Gauti Kristmannsson's translation of the novel The Magic Mountain by the German author Thomas Mann. The publication will be celebrated in the summer of 2020 at the Reykjavík Arts Festival.