Sjón is an internationally acclaimed author of the novels The Blue Fox, The Whispering Muse, From the Mouth of the Whale, Moonstone, CoDex 1962 and Red Milk for which he has won several awards including the Nordic Council’s Literature Prize and the Icelandic Literary Prize. In 2023 he was awarded the Swedish Academy’s Nordic Prize, the academy’s second biggest prize after the Nobel Prize.
As a poet Sjón has published twelve poetry collections and written opera librettos and lyrics for various musicians. His work in opera includes librettos for Shadow Play by Karólína Eiríksdóttir, Seven Stones by Ondrej Adamek and Folie à Deux by Emily Hall.
Also working in cinema, he’s written the screenplays for the Icelandic film Lamb and the US-produced Viking movie The Northman, co-written with its director Robert Eggers, that premiered globally in 2022. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his lyrics in Lars von Trier’s musical drama Dancer in the Dark at the 2001 Oscars ceremony.
In 2017 Sjón became the third writer – following Margaret Atwood and David Mitchell – to contribute to Future Library, a public artwork based in Norway spanning 100 years. He was named “Officier de l'ordre des Arts et des Lettres” by the French government in 2021. Sjón’s novels have been translated into thirty-five languages and he lives and works in Reykjavík
