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Hallgrímur Helgason opened a show of his recent paintings at the Neskirkja church’s community center in the west part of Reykjavik. The title of the show is “You Have to Teach People How to Die”, a sentence his father used a lot in his final days. Hallgrimur’s father, Mr. Helgi Hallgrimsson, passed away in October 2020. Al [...]

Hallgrímur Helgason has been awarded the highest honour the French Republic bestows on people for their merits in the field of culture. In a ceremony in Reykjavik, at the residence of the French ambassador to Iceland, Mr. Graham Paul, he received the medal designating him as an “officer” of the prestigious order. Hallgrímu [...]

To accompany his new book of poetry, We Shoot Pins, Hallgrímur Helgason rehearsed some chunks of it with one of Iceland's best drummers, Doddi Þorvaldsson. Out of those sessions grew an independent reading performance of 30 minutes. With the aid of the young and talented Krassasig, the most sought after director of music vi [...]

On September 24th Hallgrímur Helgason published his latest book of poetry, "Við skjótum títuprjónum" (We Shoot Pins). It contains one long poem in 22 chapters that was written between 2016 and 2020, mostly in airports and hotel rooms. It's a raging social critical poem that takes on the good life of people in the West, that [...]

On Sunday 1st of November, Hallgrímur Helgason was interviewed by Germany's first man of literature, Denis Scheck, on his famous TV show Druckfrisch. The interview was filmed in the north of Iceland, close to the setting of the novel Sixty Kilos of Sunshine, back in August of 2020. Helgason spoke about his novel, what he in [...]

Helgason's latest novel, the prize winning "Sixty Kilos of Sunshine", is out in Germany, published by Tropen Verlag, and translated by Karl-Ludwig Wetzig. Hailed as a "masterpiece" by the Icelandic critics it received the Icelandic Literature Prize in 2018. German is the the first foreign language it is published in. The no [...]

In October 2020 Hallgrímur Helgason went on a reading tour with his latest novel in German, 60 Kilo Sonnenschein. Despite the Corona virus, the trip was made possible with limited audiences and live streaming. Helgason read in Litarturhaus München, in the Buchhandlung Herschel in Berlin, in Literaturhaus Kiel, Literaturhaus [...]

Ísland er tjaldstæði - ræða Hallgrímur Helgason er meðal sýnenda á samsýningunni "Allt sem sýnist - Raunveruleiki á striga 1970 -2020" sem opnaði á Kjarvalsstöðum þann 25. júní 2020. Þar sýnir hann 5 málverk úr seríu sinni "Málað á myrkur" frá árinu 2015, og einnig málverkið stóra af Karlakórnum Heimi frá árinu 2000. Vi [...]

#TIMETOLISTEN In the time of the Covid 19, Goethe Institut in Berlin asked a group of international writers to record a story in their homes, for people who are stuck in their apartments in quarantine, under the hashtag #timetolisten and #zeitzuzuhören. Among the writers invited were Herta Müller, Sofie Oksanen and TC Boy [...]

The Art of Becoming Sixty Back in February 2019, Hallgrimur Helgason celebrated his sixtieth birthday in Reykjavik. He invited some friends for a party where he did a little stand-up routine about  the fact that he was getting old. Here is part of it on video. [...]

Woman at 1000°" is a Puppet in Cologne! Schauspiel Köln, a theatre in Cologne, Germany, has produced a puppet theatre version of Hallgrimur Helgason's novel "Woman at 1000°" from 2011. The theatre version was done by Gabriele Hänel and premiered at the end of January 2020. Director was Moritz Sostmann. More. [...]

On 23 October 2019 Hallgrímur Helgason gave a lecture at a conference titled ‘Nordic Branding and the Reception of the Nordic Model Abroad’, held at the University of Edinburgh. The conference was chaired by Mr. Alan Macniven, Head of Scandinavian Studies, Department of European Languages & Cultures at The University o [...]