Kristín Ómarsdóttir has won the 2017 Maístjarnan, or The May Star, an award for the best book of poetry published in the previous year, RÚV reports. She received the award for her poetry collection Kóngulær í sýningargluggum (‘Spiders in the Display Windows’) at a ceremony held at the National and University Library on Tuesday.
The May Star is collaboratively awarded by The Icelandic Writers’ Union and The National and University Library of Iceland. Any book of poetry published in the previous calendar year and submitted to The National Library is eligible. The award is meant to encourage poets to write and publish their poetry and is the only Icelandic prize awarded to a published book of poetry. The prize is ISK 350,000. This is the second year that the prize has been awarded.
“The imagery is very strong—sometimes overwhelming—and Kristín’s poetic web holds us captive…” wrote this year’s judges. “‘Spiders in the Display Windows’ is truly unusual, a uniquely powerful and challenging book of poetry and all its metaphors and descriptions open up new dimensions and new ways of looking at the world.”
Kristín Ómarsdóttir is the author of numerous novels, collections of poetry, short stories, radio plays, and theater pieces. Her novel Hér was published in English translation—Children in Reindeer Woods (trans. Lytton Smith)—in 2012.
