Herostories
(Paperback)
Publishing Details
Herostories
By (Author) Kristn Svava Tomasdottr
Translated by KB Thors
Deep Vellum Publishing
Deep Vellum Publishing
27th July 2023
United States
Classifications
General
Non Fiction
Poetry by form
Midwifery
839.6915
Physical Properties
Paperback
162
Width 127mm, Height 177mm
Description
Herostories reveals tales untold by most history books: the harrowing journeys and vital triumphs of 19th and 20th century midwifery in the vast landscape of Iceland.
Composed from the memoirs and biographies of 100 Icelandic midwives, poet-historian Kristn Svava Tmasdttirs found poems illuminate the dangers and valor of birthwork. Forgoing traditional sagas of androcentric conquest, these poems center the adventures of ljsmur, mothers of light. Tmasdttir leverages epic elementsdashing mountain treks, rivers forded on horseback, unyielding compassionto challenge how and by whom stories become legend.
The follow-up to Tmasdttir/Thors award-winning, PEN-nominated Stormwarning, Herostories documents the professional achievements of the islands first women to work outside the home, precursors to todays midwives who remain central to contemporary Icelandic healthcare.
Beyond archival recognition, the text's formally ambitious poetics render gender-based battles for literacy and education alongside narratives of selfless womanly caretaking, pressurizing the fundamental tensions between feminine self-actualization and the romanticized service of these trailblazing figures.
Author Bio
Kristn Svava Tmasdttir is a poet and historian in Reykjavk, Iceland. She has published four books of poetry: Bltglur (2007), Skrlingjasningin (2011), Stormvivrun (2015) and Hetjusgur (2020), the latest one being awarded the Icelandic Womens Prize for Fiction. Stormvivrun was translated into English by K.B. Thors as Stormwarning and published in a bilingual edition in the United States by Phoneme Media in 2018. For her translation, Thors won the American-Scandinavian Foundations Leif and Inger Sjberg Award and was longlisted for the PEN America Literary Award for translated poetry.
K.B. Thors is the author of Vulgar Mechanics (Coach House Books, 2019) and translator of Soledad Marambios Chintungo: The Story of Someone Else (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2017and Kristn Svava Tmasdttirs Stormwarning (Phoneme, 2018), winner of the American Scandinavian Foundations Leif and Inger Sjberg Prize and nominee for the 2019 PEN Literary Award for Poetry in Translation.
