Bio
Alexander Dan Vilhjálmsson is an Icelandic novelist who lives in Iceland. He explores the weird in all its multitudes, usually in novels and black metal lyrics. Some people try to call him a musician, which he disagrees with for some reason. He is represented by Jennifer Jackson at the Donald Maass Literary Agency.
Alexander used to say his favorite book was Perdido Street Station. He currently says his favorite is Manazuru by Hiromi Kawakami. Of course no one can seriously say they have a single favorite book, but there it is regardless.
As most Icelanders, he vastly prefers to be referred to by first name. His last name is patronymic, not a family name, and as such not used when referring to a person. It sounds a bit ridiculous to an Icelander, to be honest. But if you must refer to him by last name, please use Vilhjálmsson.
Career
Alexander’s career as a novelist started off a bit unconventionally. After graduating from the Creative Writing program at the University of Iceland, taking one year as an exchange student in Creative & Media Studies at Middlesex University in London, he wrote a novel in Icelandic titled HRÍMLAND that would one day become SHADOWS OF THE SHORT DAYS.
Icelandic publishers rejected the manuscript, as marketing fantasy to adults was a relatively unknown variable in the local market. He self-published HRÍMLAND in 2014, later translating the novel himself into English and submitting it to Gollancz during an open submission period.
Nearly two years later, after the editors had gone through roughly two thousand manuscripts, HRÍMLAND was chosen from the slush pile for publication as SHADOWS OF THE SHORT DAYS (pub. 2019) along with its sequel, THE STORM BENEATH A MIDNIGHT SUN (pub. 2022). Both novels were picked up by Titan Books for the US market.
After this, Alexander re-translated the heavily edited and finished books back into Icelandic, with SHADOWS OF THE SHORT DAYS published by Forlagið in 2020 and THE STORM BENEATH A MIDNIGHT SUN to be published in 2022.
Unforeseen are the paths a novel can take.
While going through this process, Alexander wrote VÆTTIR, a literary SFF novel. Written in Icelandic and published by Benedikt in 2018, it has been translated by the author into English and is currently seeking an English market publisher