Margret Helgadottir

Stories in anthologies Helgadóttir has edited have also been shortlisted to several awards, including the Caine Prize for African Writing (2017: Chikodili Emelumadu for “Bush Baby” in African Monsters), Aurealis Award (2017: Michael Grey for "Grind" in Pacific Monsters), Australian Shadows Award (2017: Rue Karney for "The Hand Walker" in Pacific Monsters), and Sir Julius Vogel Awards (2018: AJ Fitwater for "From the Womb of the Land, Our Bones Entwined" in Pacific Monsters).

Helgadóttir's debut book, The Stars Seem So Far Away, from 2015, was nominated for British Fantasy Awards in 2016, and is an apocalyptic road tale set in a far-future Arctic world, told through linked tales of five survivors. The book can be seen as a hybrid of a novel and a collection. Mark Bould wrote: "This is why slightly unusual the structure works so well. The characters – and the novel – move from profound disconnection to reconnection." Interzone (magazine) said: "Whether these are stories, chapters, fragments or something else, this book is still stunningly original”, and: “imagine J.G. Ballard rewrote The Odyssey”, while E.P. Beaumont wrote: “The stripped-down language and huge landscapes link this short novel to the world of epic poetry and saga."

Helgadóttir started writing fiction in English (her native language is Norwegian) in 2012, when she was one of the winners of a writing competition held by UK-based Fox Spirit Books. Her stories have since then appeared in several anthologies and magazines, such as Luna Station Quarterly, Gone Lawn Journal, The Girl at the End of the World, and Sunspot Jungle - The Ever Expanding Universe of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Her prose is called lyrical and haunting.