Interviews & Press
“MFA Students Travel to Tucson for ALTA48,” J. Keith Vincent. Boston University Arts & Sciences blog, 2025.
“On a sunny November day in Tucson, Arizona, forty translators gathered around two poems written in Icelandic, a language that few if any of them had studied. Led by Icelandic translator and editor Larissa Kyzer, the group spent the morning working from glosses to produce versions of the poems in English, Chinese, Spanish, French, Welsh, and Nepali. As the translators worked in groups of two or three, testing phrases out loud and debating their choices, questions flew across the room: how best to render the structure and rhyme of the originals? What happens when you translate sound rather than sense? In what ways do constraints foster creativity? By the end of the session, the room had generated vastly different versions of the same two poems, each a testament to the expansive possibilities inherent in the translator’s craft.”
“Fulbright Gave Me the Confidence to Knock on Doors: Interview with literary translator Larissa Kyzer,” Fulbright Iceland Newsletter, 2024.
“Among the Drift Ice: Larissa Kyzer on Modern Icelandic Literature in Translation,” interview with Alton Melvar M Dapanas for Asymptote, 2024.
“Larissa Kyzer on Iceland, Literary Culture, and Translation,” Harshaneeyam Podcast, 2023.
“A Year of Books by PEN America Members,” PEN.org, 2023.
“75 Notable Translations 2023” by Michelle Johnson. World Literature Today, 2023.
“Reviewing translations is a core part of World Literature Today’s mission, and we’re grateful to our reviewers for their thoughtful, incisive reviews, which remind us of the importance of reading beyond borders. For example, Lucie Nolden, in her review of The Fires, Larissa Kyzer’s English translation of Sigríður Hagalín Björnsdóttir’s Icelandic novel, concludes: ‘Proponents of more translated fiction argue that our culture needs an influx of ideas and art from around the world to stay fresh and relevant, and The Fires is the unlikely messenger of the words Americans need to hear most right now, delivered straight from the land of fire and ice. Just like Anna, it is more imperative than ever that we listen to our intuition and heed the warnings of a warming planet. Otherwise, we risk everything.’”
“Getting the Word Out” by Jelena Ćirić. Iceland Review, 2022.
Interviewed about the Icelandic translation scene and the reception of Icelandic literature abroad.
“Iceland’s Christmas Book Flood is a Force of Nature” by Lauren Oster. Smithsonian Magazine, 2022.
Interviewed about Iceland’s annual book publishing extravaganza, the jólabókaflóðið, or Christmas Book Flood.
“The Book of Reykjavik – Q&A with translator Larissa Kyzer” by Becca Parkinson. The Comma Press Blog, 2021.
“Icelandic Literature in Translation: New and Noteworthy Titles for 2021” by Björn Halldórsson. World Literature Today, 2021.
“Words Without Borders’ Earth Day: Iceland ‘On the Edge’” by Porter Anderson. Publishing Perspectives, April 22, 2021.
“Icelandic Literature Featured in Words Without Borders’ Latest Issue” by Jelena Ćirić. Iceland Review, April 2021.
“Staging Translation: An Interview with Larissa Kyzer” by Sarah Timmer Harvey. Asymptote, March 2020.
“A Winning Heart: Larissa Kyzer Wins Award for Her Translation of Kristín Eiríksdóttir’s A Fist or a Heart” by a rawlings. The Reykjavík Grapevine, February 2020.