Kristjana Gunnars was born in 1948 in Reykjavik, Iceland, to Gunnar Bodvarsson and Tove Christensen. She has been a landed immigrant in Canada since 1969 and has a son. Eyvindur Kang, born in 1971. She was educated at Oregon State University (B.A. 1973), the University of Regina (M.A. 1978), and is currently working on a Ph.D. from the University of Manitoba. Although primarily known as a poet, she is also much respected for her work as translator and as researcher into the Nordic settlements in Canada and Greenland, and, especially, for her work on the poetry of the Icelandic-Canadian poet Stephan G. Stephansson (1853-1927).

Gunnars has also contributed numerous short stories, scholarly articles, and reviews to various periodicals. Her writing indicates two major concerns. The first is to affirm her Icelandic roots and to use the cultural and linguistic richness of her education to inform her poetic language, and thus...