Margrét Örnólfsdóttir

Margrét Örnólfsdóttir was born in Reykjavík on November 21st 1967. She graduated from Menntaskólinn í Hamrahlíð secondary school in 1988 and in 1994 completed eighth level piano from the Reykjavík Music Academy.

Margrét played keyboards for The Sugar Cubes from 1988 to 1992. From then on she has worked independently as a musician, writing music for films and theatre, and recorded children‘s albums. She has also worked as a translator and a copywrighter, held arts‘ classes for children and adults, as well as managing radio- and television programmes.

Margrét wrote the screenplay, as well as the music, for the film Regína (2001) and has since then worked as a screenwriter. She has written for the programmes Stelpurnar, Svartir englar, Réttur and Pressa, as well as the Áramótaskaup of 2006. She sat on the board of the Icelandic Dramatists‘ Union from 2005 to 2007.

Margrét‘s first children‘s novel, Aþena (ekki höfuðborgin í Grikklandi ;) (Athena (Not the Greek Capital ;) ), was published in 2009. The sequel, Aþena – hvað er málið með Haítí (Athena – What‘s the Deal With Haiti), was published the following year, and Með heiminn í vasanum (The World in Your Pocket) was published in 2012. Margrét has been awarded the Icelandic Women‘s Literature Award and the Icelandic IBBY Award for her books, and in 2012 she received the Icelandic Children‘s Literature Award for Með heiminn í vasanum.

Margrét is married with five children. She lives in Kópavogur.

Publisher: Bjartur.