Brynja Hjálmsdóttir was born in 1992.

Okfruman (The Zygote), her first book of poetry, was published in 2019. The piece received excellent critical response, was nominated for The Icelandic Women’s Literary Award (Fjöruverðlaunin) and was awarded Poetry Book of the Year by The Icelandic Bookseller’s Choice Awards. For her next poetry book, Kona lítur við (A Woman Looks Over Her Shoulder), Brynja received a nomination for the Maístjarnan Poetry Prize. The book came out in the U.S. in 2024, translated to English by Rachel Britton.

In 2022, Brynja received the Jón úr Vör Poetry Award for her poem “Þegar dagar aldrei dagar aldrei” (“When Day Never Breaks the Day Never Breaks”). That same year, she was awarded the Vigdís Finnbogadóttir Encouragement Award. Her novel Friðsemd (The Perished Land) was published in 2024 and received recognition from booksellers.

Brynja has published poems and short stories in anthologies and literary magazines both at home and abroad. As well as writing, she works as a teacher and film critic.

She holds a BA in Film Studies and an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Iceland.