ABOUT ICELAND NOIR
Iceland Noir is a literature festival celebrating darkness in all its forms, held in Reykjavík at the darkest time of year. Founded by internationally bestselling crime writers Yrsa Sigurðardóttir (Hodder & Stoughton) and Ragnar Jónasson (Penguin Random House), Iceland Noir is a destination literary festival celebrating darkness in all its forms, held in Reykjavik at the darkest time of year. The festival started as a celebration of crime fiction in 2013, and, in the years since, has evolved and grown in scope to welcome writers and creatives outside the genre as well.
What brings everything together is the theme of darkness. . .
Living at the edge of the Arctic Circle, in a country famous for its wild weather, active volcanoes and stunning moon-like landscapes, Icelanders have developed a unique relationship with the darkness that covers the country for much of the year, and in it, found a seemingly endless capacity for creativity.
A hallmark of our festival is its strong sense of community—a quality that we take great pride in and seek to foster every year through carefully-curated programming and community engagement. Our festival events take place in two main venues, both of which are centrally located and within easy walking distance of one another: the cozy and welcoming Kjarvalsstofa, with its panoramic views of the city, and the beautiful green and white church Fríkirkjan, a stunning example of traditional Icelandic architecture which sits next to Reykjavík’s iconic town pond. Additional fringe events are located at unique venues throughout the city. Many authors and guests return every year, extending their stays to explore the surrounding countryside.
Our 2023 festival was our biggest yet, and included headline appearances from Hillary Clinton, Dan Brown, Neil Gaiman, Lisa Jewell, Richard Armitage, and many more. We welcomed over 350 guests and authors from Iceland and around the world to our festival last year, and we expect even more to join us again this year.
Iceland Noir is a literature festival celebrating darkness in all its forms, held in Reykjavík at the darkest time of year. Founded by internationally bestselling crime writers Yrsa Sigurðardóttir (Hodder & Stoughton) and Ragnar Jónasson (Penguin Random House), Iceland Noir is a destination literary festival celebrating darkness in all its forms, held in Reykjavik at the darkest time of year. The festival started as a celebration of crime fiction in 2013, and, in the years since, has evolved and grown in scope to welcome writers and creatives outside the genre as well.
What brings everything together is the theme of darkness. . .
Living at the edge of the Arctic Circle, in a country famous for its wild weather, active volcanoes and stunning moon-like landscapes, Icelanders have developed a unique relationship with the darkness that covers the country for much of the year, and in it, found a seemingly endless capacity for creativity.
A hallmark of our festival is its strong sense of community—a quality that we take great pride in and seek to foster every year through carefully-curated programming and community engagement. Our festival events take place in two main venues, both of which are centrally located and within easy walking distance of one another: the cozy and welcoming Kjarvalsstofa, with its panoramic views of the city, and the beautiful green and white church Fríkirkjan, a stunning example of traditional Icelandic architecture which sits next to Reykjavík’s iconic town pond. Additional fringe events are located at unique venues throughout the city. Many authors and guests return every year, extending their stays to explore the surrounding countryside.
Our 2023 festival was our biggest yet, and included headline appearances from Hillary Clinton, Dan Brown, Neil Gaiman, Lisa Jewell, Richard Armitage, and many more. We welcomed over 350 guests and authors from Iceland and around the world to our festival last year, and we expect even more to join us again this year.
THE TEAM BEHIND ICELAND NOIR
Ragnar Jónasson is an international number one bestselling author who has sold over two million books in thirty-two countries worldwide. Ragnar was born in Reykjavík, and from the age of seventeen has been translating Agatha Christie's novels - he has translated fourteen to date - alongside his own prolific writing, family and job working as a lawyer. Ragnar founded Iceland Noir in 2013 with fellow Reyjavík resident, friend and global bestselling author Yrsa Sigurðardóttir and translator Quentin Bates. He is currently writing a novel with the Icelandic Prime Minister, Katrín Jakobsdóttir, and we are very excited that both his international bestseller The Darkness and his Dark Iceland series are soon to be a major TV series.
Yrsa Sigurðardóttir is the author of the internationally bestselling Thora Guðmundsdóttir crime series, the Huldar and Freyja series and several stand-alone thrillers. Born and raised in Reykjavík, as well as writing Yrsa works as senior partner in one of the country's largest engineering consultancies, alongside being an author, organiser and co-founder of Iceland Noir with Ragnar. Her work has been translated into more than 30 languages and in 2011, her stand-alone horror novel I Remember You (Ég man þig) was adapted for the big screen, with the resulting film hitting the no. 1 spot in Icelandic ticket sales the year it came out. Yrsa and also collects extremely beautiful shoes, something that previous guests of the festival will be all too familiar with.
Sverrir Norland is an Icelandic author, translator, publisher, and public speaker. His latest book is Stríð og kliður (War & Noise, 2021), a personal essay on nature, technology, and the human imagination, which was met with great acclaim in his native country. Sverrir has also published two novels with Forlagið, Iceland’s leading publishing house: Kvíðasnillingarnir (Masters of Anxiety) and Fyrir allra augum (In Plain Sight). He runs a small publishing house called AM forlag, and has translated, from both French and English, books by Maurice Sendak, Tomi Ungerer, Pénélope Bagieu, and Carson Ellis, among others, as well as making programs for radio and TV.
Ólafur Darri Ólafsson was born on the 3rd of March in Connecticut, USA in 1973. Growing up in Iceland from the age of 4 he went to The Icelandic Drama School. Olafur Darri has been fortunate enough to work full time as an actor from his graduation with the help of a lot of good people. He is one of the founders of the Vesturport Theatre Company as well as the production company ACT4. Olafur Darri lives in Reykjavik with his partner, two daughters and Waffle the dog.
HOW ICELAND NOIR CAME TO BE. . .
Iceland Noir was born in 2013 over a curry in one of Reykjavík’s finer Indian restaurants. Yrsa Sigurðardóttir, Ragnar Jónasson and Quentin Bates were idly wondering why Iceland had never had its own crime fiction festival.
The idea gelled and by the time we all met again Crimefest in Bristol a few weeks later, it seemed we had all been thinking much the same thoughts and Iceland Noir was born on the spot.
We asked Ann Cleeves if she’d appear if we were to go ahead with a small crime fiction festival in Reykjavík later that year. To her immense credit, she didn’t hesitate. She didn’t consult her diary or her publicist, but just said ‘yes’ right away, and from that point on there was no turning back. We had six months to organise it all and plenty of people thought we were either wildly over-ambitious or just nuts.
But it all worked out. The first Iceland Noir took place in the Nordic House in Reykjavík in November 2013 as a one-day event. It was a great success, in spite of being a little rough around the edges, and we learned a lot from it – enough to organise an even better event in 2014.
After Iceland Noir 2014, the scene switched to Lerwick, where Shetland Arts borrowed the date for the excellent Shetland Noir festival in November 2015.
In 2014 we also invited Lilja Sigurðardóttir to the organising team and she added some much-needed energy and ideas to the mix. For the 2016 event, we were joined by expat Kiwi and Reykjavík resident Grant Nicol, who then went back home and is now in the process of organizing Rotorua Noir in NZ. In 2018 we welcomed award winning crime author Óskar Guðmundsson to the group and with him a fresh breeze of new ideas. In 2020 another award winning author, Eva Björg Ægisdóttir, replaced Lilja on the team, similarly bringing her own innovative ideas into the planning process. In 2022 Hattie Adam-Smith came on board as our Festival Manager and we grew again. We are grateful to all of these talented individuals for all of their work on behalf of Iceland Noir over the years!
We have also had great help in realizing Iceland Noir in the past from some awesomely talented people including Ulfhildur Dagsdóttir, Markús Már Efraím, Jórunn Jónsdóttir of the All-Iceland travel agency as well as the Reykjavík Unesco City of Literature and Promote Iceland.
Iceland Noir is run mostly without subsidies. This means that it’s funded by those who take part, on the basis that everyone who attends in whatever capacity pays the festival pass fee and we keep the price of this as low as it feasibly can be to cover costs. With the tourist boom in the last years this cost has unfortunately gone up and Reykjavík is now one of the most expensive cities on the planet. We are truly sorry for this but, at the same time we are sure that for crime-fiction aficionados, Iceland Noir is definitely worth it!
Our aim in running it is to have a good time with a bunch of like-minded, passionate readers, and to preferably not make a loss, and we’re proud to have achieved those aims.
The idea gelled and by the time we all met again Crimefest in Bristol a few weeks later, it seemed we had all been thinking much the same thoughts and Iceland Noir was born on the spot.
We asked Ann Cleeves if she’d appear if we were to go ahead with a small crime fiction festival in Reykjavík later that year. To her immense credit, she didn’t hesitate. She didn’t consult her diary or her publicist, but just said ‘yes’ right away, and from that point on there was no turning back. We had six months to organise it all and plenty of people thought we were either wildly over-ambitious or just nuts.
But it all worked out. The first Iceland Noir took place in the Nordic House in Reykjavík in November 2013 as a one-day event. It was a great success, in spite of being a little rough around the edges, and we learned a lot from it – enough to organise an even better event in 2014.
After Iceland Noir 2014, the scene switched to Lerwick, where Shetland Arts borrowed the date for the excellent Shetland Noir festival in November 2015.
In 2014 we also invited Lilja Sigurðardóttir to the organising team and she added some much-needed energy and ideas to the mix. For the 2016 event, we were joined by expat Kiwi and Reykjavík resident Grant Nicol, who then went back home and is now in the process of organizing Rotorua Noir in NZ. In 2018 we welcomed award winning crime author Óskar Guðmundsson to the group and with him a fresh breeze of new ideas. In 2020 another award winning author, Eva Björg Ægisdóttir, replaced Lilja on the team, similarly bringing her own innovative ideas into the planning process. In 2022 Hattie Adam-Smith came on board as our Festival Manager and we grew again. We are grateful to all of these talented individuals for all of their work on behalf of Iceland Noir over the years!
We have also had great help in realizing Iceland Noir in the past from some awesomely talented people including Ulfhildur Dagsdóttir, Markús Már Efraím, Jórunn Jónsdóttir of the All-Iceland travel agency as well as the Reykjavík Unesco City of Literature and Promote Iceland.
Iceland Noir is run mostly without subsidies. This means that it’s funded by those who take part, on the basis that everyone who attends in whatever capacity pays the festival pass fee and we keep the price of this as low as it feasibly can be to cover costs. With the tourist boom in the last years this cost has unfortunately gone up and Reykjavík is now one of the most expensive cities on the planet. We are truly sorry for this but, at the same time we are sure that for crime-fiction aficionados, Iceland Noir is definitely worth it!
Our aim in running it is to have a good time with a bunch of like-minded, passionate readers, and to preferably not make a loss, and we’re proud to have achieved those aims.
Photos by Ian Dawson, Nord Digital
P R E V I O U S G U E S T S
Abir Mukherjee
AJ Finn
Ann Cleeves
Anthony Horowitz
Bernardine Evaristo
C. L. Taylor
Dan Brown
Cara Hunter
Clare Mackintosh
David Fennell
David Walliams
Irvine Welsh
Emelie Schepp
Giti Chandra
Gunnþórunn Guðmundsdóttir
Ian Rankin
Íris Tanja Flygenring
Lisa Jewell
Jónína Leósdóttir
Kamilla Einarsdottir
Kevin Wignall
Kristín Eiríksdóttir
Lilja Sigurðardóttir
Liz Nugent
Ólafur Darri Ólafsson
Paula Hawkins
Peter James
Richard Osman
C.J. Tudor
Ruth Ware
Sara Blædel
Neil Gaiman
Shari Lapena
Simon Kernick
SJ Watson
Sólveig Pálsdóttir
Val McDermid
Will Dean
Abir Mukherjee
AJ Finn
Ann Cleeves
Anthony Horowitz
Bernardine Evaristo
C. L. Taylor
Dan Brown
Cara Hunter
Clare Mackintosh
David Fennell
David Walliams
Irvine Welsh
Emelie Schepp
Giti Chandra
Gunnþórunn Guðmundsdóttir
Ian Rankin
Íris Tanja Flygenring
Lisa Jewell
Jónína Leósdóttir
Kamilla Einarsdottir
Kevin Wignall
Kristín Eiríksdóttir
Lilja Sigurðardóttir
Liz Nugent
Ólafur Darri Ólafsson
Paula Hawkins
Peter James
Richard Osman
C.J. Tudor
Ruth Ware
Sara Blædel
Neil Gaiman
Shari Lapena
Simon Kernick
SJ Watson
Sólveig Pálsdóttir
Val McDermid
Will Dean
ICELAND NOIR, REYKJAVIK, ICELAND | 12 - 15 NOVEMBER 2025
