Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir was born in Iceland in 1958, studied art history in Paris and has lectured in the history of art. She has published a poetry collection and several novels, including Butterflies in November, which was longlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, and The Greenhouse, which was translated into twenty-two languages, won the DV Culture Award for Literature, and was a finalist for the Nordic Council Literature Award. She currently lives and works in Reykjavik as the director of the University of Iceland’s Art Museum.