The Sorrow Stone

Fri 6 May 2022

Maiwar Green Marquee, State Library

Main Festival

#Performances

#About the event

Duration: 60 minutes

Kári Gíslason’s latest epic reimagines the fate of one of Iceland’s most famous women of history, taking a sidelined figure from the Viking tales and putting her at the centre of the story. It’s also the first book where University of Queensland Press offered a money-back guarantee of enjoyment. Come find out why as Gíslason discusses his latest work.

Kári Gíslason in conversation with Krissy Kneen

#Artists

Kári Gíslason

Kári Gíslason is a writer and an academic who lectures in Creative Writing at QUT. Kári was awarded a doctorate in 2003 for his thesis on medieval Icelandic literature. His first book, The Promise of Iceland (UQP, 2011), told the story of return journeys he’s made to his birthplace. His second book was the novel The Ash Burner (UQP, 2015). He is also the co-author, with Richard Fidler, of Saga Land: The island of stories at the edge of the world (HarperCollins, 2017), which won the Indie Book Award for Non-Fiction in 2018. His fourth book, The Sorrow Stone (UQP, 2022), is an historical novel that reimagines the life of one of the most famous women of the medieval Icelandic sagas.

Kris Kneen

Kris Kneen is the award-winning author of fiction, poetry and non-fiction including An Uncertain Grace which was shortlisted for the Stella Prize, Wintering, shortlisted for the Davitt award and three QPLA awards, and The Three Burials of Lotty Kneen which was shortlisted for two QPLA awards and the Margarey Medal. Their poetry collection Eating My Grandmother won the Thomas Shapcott Prize. Their latest book Fat Girl Dancing is shortlisted for the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award. They have written and directed broadcast television documentaries and were the Copyright Agency Ltd Non-fiction Fellow in 2020.