Hjörleifur Hjartarson (1960) is a teacher but alongside his teaching career he works as an author, copywriter and musician. He has published both verse and prose books for children and adults, plays and translations.
Hjörleifur is one of the two members of the music group Hundur í óskilum. The band has released two albums and played numerous concerts. Lately, they have become famous for their funny and educative music performances which are highly appreciated in theatres both in Reykjavik and Akureyri. They were awarded with Griman, the Icelandic performing arts awards for outstanding theatre achievement.
Apart from all that, Hjörleifur has worked as a project manager and made texts for museums and exhibitions. One of those projects led him to the area of the birds that have been flying around him ever since and one of the outcome is the book Fuglar (“Birds”) published in 2017 that Hjörleifur wrote in collaboration with illustrator Rán Flygenring.
The book was nominated for The Icelandic Literary Prize 2017 in the category of children and young adult’s fiction.