Andri Snær Magnason – author of On Time and Water, Dreamland, Casket of Time, LoveStar, The Story of the Blue Planet, Bonus Poetry and more…
Andri Snær Magnason is an Icelandic writer and documentary film director born in Reykjavik on the 14th of July 1973. His book, On Time and Water was a best seller in Iceland in 2019 and has been translated to more than 30 languages. On Time and Water won the Tiziano Terzani Award in Italy 2021 and was shortlisted for the Nordic Councils Literary Prize of 2021. Andri has written novels, poetry, plays, short stories and essays. He is a popular public speaker, with sold out performances in The Reykjavik City Theatre. He is the codirector with Þorfinnur Guðnason of the documentary film Dreamland. His second documentary film directed with Anni Ólafsdóttir – The Hero’s Journey to the Third Pole – a Bipolar Musical Documentary with Elephants internationally premiered at CPH:DOX 2021. His third documentary premiered in 2021 also with Anni Ólafsdóttir: Apausalypse.
Published and performed in more than 40 countries
Andri’s work has been published or performed in more than 40 countries. His novel, LoveStar got the Philip K Dick Special Citation 2013, and the Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire for best International science fiction book in France 2016. LoveStar was chosen “Novel of the year” by Icelandic booksellers and received the DV Literary Award. His most recent children’s/YA Book, The Casket of Time, won the Icelandic literary Award and was nominated for the Nordic Council Children’s book Award and has been sold to 14 countries. His children’s book, The Story of the Blue Planet, was the first children’s book to receive the Icelandic Literary Prize and has been published or performed in 40 countries. The Story of the Blue Planet received the Janusz Korczak Honorary Award 2000 the West Nordic Children’s Book Prize 2002, The Green Earth Honour Award 2013, the UKLA Award in 2014 in the UK, and Children’s book of the Year in China 2019. The Blue Planet has been performed in theatres in Greece, Finland, Denmark, Swiss, Iceland and Canada. Andri has collaborated with various artists in the fields of activism, science, architecture, visual art, music, theatre and documentary film. Andri has been active in the fight against the destruction of the Icelandic Highlands. His book – Dreamland – a Self Help Manual for a Frightened Nation takes on these issues. His text for the memorial of Ok glacier became widely read around the world.
Dreamland has been published in English, Danish, German, Spanish and Japanese and has become a feature length documentary film. Footage from Dreamland and an interview with Andri can be seen in Charles Ferguson’s Oscar winning documentary – Inside Job. Andri can be contacted here: andrimagnason (at) gmail.com. Andri Magnason is the winner of the Kairos Award of 2010 – granted by the Alfred Toepfer institute in Hamburg.
Andri ran for President of Iceland in 2016 with environmental issues on his agenda and came third. Andri comes from a family of doctors and nurses. His father is a doctor, his mother is a nurse, his sister is a brain surgeon, his brother is in computers but his wife is a nurse. Andri is married to a nurse but her sister is a doctor, his mother-in-law is a nurse and her sister too. His great grandfather was a doctor in the West Fjords of Iceland. His grandfather, Björn Thorbjarnarson was chief surgeon at the New York Hospital and a professor at Cornell University. Björn wrote the bestseller: Surgery of the Bilinary Tract, 1975. Andri lives in Reykjavík, he has four children.
He can be contacted here: andrimagnason (at) gmail.com
You can follow Andri on twitter here: https://twitter.com/#!/AndriMagnason
You can follow him on Facebook here: http://www.facebook.com/AndriSnaerMagnason