Elías Snæland Jónsson

Elías Snæland Jónsson was born in Bjarnarfjörður in Strandasýsla on January 8, 1943. He studied at the LO-school at Sörmarka in Norway after finishing his education in Iceland, and then became a journalist for the Sunmöre Arbeideravis in Aalesund in 1963. He moved back to Iceland, and became a journalist for the newspapers Tíminn and Vísir. Jónsson also edited the weekly Ný þjóðmál from 1974- 1976, the daily Tíminn from 1981–1984, was co-editor of DV newspaper 1984–1997 and the editor of Dagur newspaper 1997–2001. The last decade he has worked as a writer and freelance journalist.
Elías Snæland Jónsson first sent forward the short story "Hvernig skyldi það vera?" ("Wonder what it's like?") which was published in 1984 in a collection of short stories for teenagers. He has written novels, one of which has also been published in German, plays, scripts for documentaries, non-fiction books about Icelandic history in the Twentieth century and a number of books for children and young people.
His play, Fjörbrot fuglanna ("Vögel im Todeskampf") (Birds in Deaththroes) was staged by Theater Junge Generation in Dresden, Germany in 1999-2001.
Elías Snæland Jónsson received the Icelandic Children's Book Award for his book Brak og brestir (Deep in the Glacier) in 1993, and his book Návígi á hvalaslóð (Lords of the Sea) from 1998 was on the IBBY honour list for 2000–2002.
Elías Snæland Jónsson lives in Kópavogur. He is married to Anna Kristín Brynjúlfsdóttir, writer and Latin teacher. They have three sons and three grandchildren.