Gyrðir Elíasson (b. 1961) won the Nordic Council Literature Prize 2011 for his short story collection Milli trjánna (Among the Trees) „for stylistically outstanding literary art which depicts inner and outer threats in dialogue with world literature.” Elíasson made his debut in 1983. Throughout his literary career he has published a great number of works of short prose, lyric poetry and seven novels. He is also an avid translator, especially of books about and by American aborigines, and has translated four of Richard Brautigan’s novels. In 2011 he sent forward a large collection of translated poetry, with poems by thirty-six poets from fifteen countries, for which he won the Icelandic translation prize.

Gyrðir has received various awards and nominations for his works and translations. Among them are the Icelandic Literary Prize in 2000 for the short story collection The Yellow House, the Nordic Council Literature Prize in 2011 for the short story collection Between the Trees, and the Swedish Tranströmer Prize in 2024.

He was nominated for the French Prix Médicis in 2022 for The Sorrow March, the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award in 2009 for Stone Tree, and the European Short Story Prize in 1989 for the story “The Woman with the Grass” from Tregahornið.

Elíasson´s works include collections of short stories, novels, collections of flash fiction and collections of poetry, apart from a number of books with translated poetry and fiction.