Writing
I write historical fiction, family stories, and essays rooted in Icelandic heritage, emigration, and memory. My work explores the lives behind the records — the quiet courage, grief, and resilience of people standing at the edge of change.
This page holds personal work in progress as well as finished pieces.
Additionally, I have written extensively for Icelandic Roots, contributing articles, essays, and historical narratives.
Under the Wind
This is the landscape that shapes this historical fiction novel in progress - Under the Wind.
A little bit about the story:
Under the Wind is a historical novel set in Iceland in the years before emigration, when land, labor, and law pressed heavily on rural families, and the future felt increasingly narrow.
Rooted in daily life, the story follows one family’s reckoning as the cost of staying slowly becomes as great as that of leaving.
We did not leave for opportunity.
We left so we could stay a family.
Past / Selected Projects
The Icelandic Emigration Journey: From Turfhouses to Prairie Homesteads
Exhibition & Exhibition Book (2023)
Created for the Scandinavian Hjemkost Festival in Moorhead, Minnesota, this project explored the Icelandic emigration story through place, movement, and memory. The accompanying 115-page exhibition book wove together historical context, images, and narrative to guide visitors through the emotional and physical journey from Icelandic turf houses to prairie homesteads.
The exhibit was located at The Rourke Art Gallery & Museum, in Moorhead, MN. The project reflects my ongoing interest in telling emigration stories visually and narratively — grounding history in human experience. Available on Amazon.
Icelandic Settlement of NE North Dakota
This twelve-page self-drive guide traces the Icelandic settlement of northeast North Dakota, churches, cemeteries, and community landmarks. 2017.
Personal Family History.
Published in 2025.
250 Pages.
Not for sale.
Personal Family History.
Published in 2025.
330 Pages.
Not for sale.
Thingvalla: Telling the Story Where It Happened
Near the land where I grew up — and not far from where I live now — stood Thingvalla Lutheran Church, built by Icelandic settlers including my ancestors, who carried their faith, language, and memory across an ocean and into the Dakota prairie.
After the church burned in 2003, I created a series of storyboard panels telling the story of the Icelandic families who settled this place, our history, the church, and more. The work was deeply personal. These were not abstract ancestors; this was my landscape, my community, and the stories that shaped my understanding of home.
The project grew beyond the panels themselves. I helped raise funds, worked with artists, and helped bring into being a seven-foot replica of Bertel Thorvaldsen’s Christus statue — echoing the one that once stood on the church’s altar. The goal was not preservation alone, but continuity: telling the story where it happened, for those who come after.
This work sits at the intersection of history, place, and lived memory — and it continues to inform how I think about storytelling, loss, and what endures.
To learn more about Thingvalla see these articles I wrote at Icelandic Roots:
https://www.icelandicroots.com/post/2012/07/11/thingvalla-lutheran-church
https://www.icelandicroots.com/post/2017/01/21/thingvalla-and-kn-julius