Icelandic writer, poet, playwright. She studied Italian literature at the University of Bologna in Italy, history and literature at the University of Iceland, and art history at the Sorbonne University in Paris. Taught art history at the University of Iceland. First novel, The Ascended Ground (Upphækkuð jörð), published in 1998. He became famous after his third novel, Afleggjarinn (2008). It was nominated for the Nordic Council of Ministers' Prize for Literature and won the Canadian Prix des libraires du Quebec (2011). The novel Scars (Ör, 2016) was awarded the Nordic Council of Ministers' Literature Prize and will be published in Lithuanian in 2019 (Lithuanian Writers' Union Publishing House, translated by Rasa Ruseckienė). The theme of the novel is the scars left by everyday life and war in the human soul and the search for a way to survive. The writer's works are characterised by a poetic style, deep subtexts, gentle humour, unexpected and paradoxical endings. Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir also writes lyrics for the Icelandic pop and electronic music band Milkywhale.
