Reykjavík Grapevine - Feb 2020, Page 32

32The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 02— 2020
A Winnin! Heart
Larissa Kyzer wins award for her translation of
Kristín Eiríksdóttir’s 'A Fist in the Heart'
Words: a rawlings
Book
Larissa Kyzer wins American-
Scandinavian Award for Translation.
“It was a real honour to work on 'A
Fist in the Heart,'” beams Larissa
Kyzer, English-language transla-
tor of Kristín Eiríksdóttir’s nov-
el. For Larissa’s translation, she
won an American-Scandinavian
Foundation Award announced
last month. “It was exciting for
me personally because it's nice
to see my work being appreciated
and validated. It's also exciting
because it was for this particular
book.”
An emerging translator of Ice-
landic to English, Larissa focuses
on bringing contemporary fiction
and poetry to English readers. In
Fall 2019, Larissa was translator
in residence at Princeton Univer-
sity. She’ll return in Fall 2020 to
teach a formal translation work-
shop. In addition to her academic
adventures, Larissa is currently
translating short stories by Frí!a
Ísberg as well as poetry and fic-
tion by Kári Tulinius.
On winning the translation
award, Larissa shares, “It's very
gratifying because it's something
that I put a lot of myself into. I spe-
cifically applied this time around
because it was a project that I
cared so much about. I wouldn't
have applied if I didn't think it was
a fantastic translation of a book. It
is such a fabulous book.”
Intimate with Icelandic
Larissa arrived in Iceland in 2012
to study via a Fulbright scholar-
ship for one year. She extended
her stay for an additional four
years, which afforded her the op-
portunity to study a Masters in
Translation at the University of
Iceland. Though she has returned
to the United States, Larissa still
works with written Icelandic ev-
ery day. She confides, “I email in
Icelandic. I translate it. The more I
do it, the faster I get and the better
off my vocabulary is.”
While her work as a transla-
tor brings her an intimacy with
written Icelandic, she jokes about
the different relationship she has
with spoken Icelandic. “If I went
to the countryside and there was
no English speaker, I could get
by, though I would sound like a
deranged child. I sometimes say
I speak skrítlensku,” she explains,
playfully blending the Icelandic
word for “weird” (skríti!) and
“Íslensku” (“Icelandic”... in Icelan-
dic).
Living inside lit
Larissa’s passion for contempo-
rary literature gives her a dis-
tinct insight into the life of a text.
“Translation brings together all of
the things I love: writing, reading,
increasing engagement with text,”
she explains. “It's creative; you get
to live inside the literature.”
The idea to pursue translation
first occurred to Larissa in college
during literature classes. She sub-
sequently sought out world litera-
ture, and was gifted a short-story
collection by Icelandic authors. “I
loved it. I read about this country
that had such a strong literary his-
tory, that valued literature in this
beautiful and active way. There
were not as many people translat-
ing Icelandic then so I found that
there was a niche there.”
Translating A Fist
Larissa shares how she landed the
translation of Kristín’s book. “I
was doing samples for Forlagi!,”
Larissa explains, “which the pub-
lisher takes to literary festivals
to try and sell foreign rights. I
was asked to sample A Fist in the
Heart. There was a bidding war
over the book, which was exciting.
Amazon Crossing was really nice
because they let me continue as
the translator.”
Kristín’s writing first crossed
Larissa’s desk when she was a stu-
dent at the University of Iceland.
“I loved her first novel 'Hvítfeld.'
There’s a short story—"Evelyn
Hates Her Name"—from Kristín’s
short story collection ‘Doris Deyr’
that I tried to translate before I
was capable. It was too hard; I
maxed out. I wasn’t far enough
along in my language acquisition
studies.”
During Larissa’s translation
work for A Fist in the Heart, she re-
turned to “Evelyn Hates Her Name.”
“I had the opportunity to go back to
that story and publish it in an on-
line journal,” Larissa recalls.
“I'm all in with Kristín’s work,”
Larissa raves. “She is an incred-
ible writer. I love how her writ-
ing slices to the heart of observa-
tions. She has amazing rhythms
and trains of thought that split
into grotesque streams. Fresh and
unique.”
Books
Whiskey Cocktails, Whiskey Fligths, Whiskey Shots, Whiskey School, Happy
Hour, Draft Beer & Exterior Patio