Jónína Leósdóttir, an Icelandic writer of dozen plays, numerous novels, two biographies and a collection of articles written for a women's magazine. Your books have been translated into several languages and you read your work also abroad. I think that you could be a true role model for lesbian and bisexual women of all ages and walks of life with your numerous works, achievements and prizes. Can you tell us about yourself, how come you decided to become writer, playwright, author and editor? “Reading has always been a big passion in my life, which was lucky for me as a child, because I had a weak immune system and was frequently ill. I often had to stay inside for long periods, while all my friends played outside. Icelandic television only started broadcasting when I was almost a teenager, so I spent my early childhood reading and drawing, which was another passion of mine. From the age of five, I was also introduced to the theatre by two aunts, who lived with us. They took me to see every play that was staged in the two professional theatres in Reykjavik and sometimes they took me to the cinema. So, I grew up with all kinds of stories – in books, on stage and on screen. I also wrote and illustrated my own stories and constantly wrote letters, as I had pen-friends all over the world. (I learned English at an early age, as my family rented out flats in our house to foreign diplomats that I loved talking to.) However, I never imagined writing as a job. I planned to become a vicar, because I wanted to change the church from the inside, then an art-historian or maybe a linguist. But I happily ended up with a degree in English and literature. I was 31 before I realized I could actually make a living by writing. Before that time, I had translated a few books, but at the end of 1985 I was offered a temporary job as a journalist. That was like winning the lottery. I stayed in journalism for twenty years but also began writing books and plays in the evenings and during weekends and holidays. I simply haven’t stopped writing since. You thematize lesbian relationships and relationship with your wife, Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir, former Icelandic Prime Minister in several of your works, such as in drama The Secret (1997) and book Við Jóhanna (Jóhanna and I). You wrote about hiding your relationship when you both were married to the time you publicly came out. Especially, book Jóhanna and I (2013) is the chronological description of your intimate relationship with Jóhanna, from the first meeting in 1985 to the day you got married in 2010 and Jóhanna became primer minister in 2009. How do you think society changed regarding the acceptance of homosexual love in the past decades and how do you feel when looking back at the times of 80's and 90's and compare your relationship with nowadays? How your work thematizing homosexuality was received among readers then and now? The fact that Jóhanna and I met was a huge coincidence. She was a Member of Parliament and I had no interest in politics. But I agreed to do someone a favour and, as a result, I ended up in the world of politics for a short while. I fell in love with her and later we became lovers, although neither of us had been in a same-sex relationship before. This was totally unexpected for us. We both divorced our husbands, but continued to live separately. In 1985 it was impossible for a politician to come out and expect no consequences. It would have been a big risk. So, our relationship was a secret for 15 years, and that was an extremely difficult time for us, not least because Jóhanna was a minister in the government for many of those years and very much in the public eye. However, the attitude towards homosexuality in Iceland gradually changed, because of the effort of a small group of activists. I think Jóhanna’s career would not have been damaged so much if we had come out in the mid 90’s, for example. But you can never know for sure, as politics can be a ruthless world. I was often very sad and impatient during these closet-years, so it was a big relief when we finally set up home together in 2000, and could stop hiding our feelings. I had already started to write about gay issues during our years in the closet. A college drama-group asked me to write a full-length play for them about a girl coming out to family and friends. This was in 1997 and it was wonderful project for me. And, immediately, two other colleges also wanted to stage the play. That shows how much attitudes were changing in Iceland, especially with young people. But I never discussed my own personal connection to the theme with anyone in those groups, although Jóhanna came with me to the first premiere. In 1999, I wrote a series of short plays for television and one of them was about two gay men from the countryside, who spend their first whole night together in a hotel in Reykjavik. The play was broadcast in 2000 and did not cause any scandal. By then, Civil Partnership for gay men and lesbians had already been legalized and Gay Pride parades were growing in popularity. It was incredible to witness this. A few years into the 21st century, approximately 100.000 people were taking part in the annual Gay Pride celebrations in the centre of Reykjavik. That is almost a third of the total population of Iceland. So, Icelandic society has changed a lot from the first years of my and Jóhanna’s relationship and now being queer would not hamper people in politics. In 2007, I wrote a book for young adults with a lesbian-theme. I thought it was important for queer teenagers to be able to read Icelandic fiction about their own reality. This is a novel about a girl from Iceland who spends a summer in Brighton in England, and begins to discover who she is. I then wrote two more books about that character, so this became a trilogy. (Kisses & Olives, Black & White, Me & You, published 2007-2009.) And the books did not only appeal to LGBT+ teenagers. They were very well received by both girls and boys, straight and gay. When Jóhanna became Prime Minister in 2009, her sexuality was of no importance to people in Iceland. But the foreign media started making that an issue, quite understandably, as she was the first openly homosexual leader in the world. We received interview requests from all around the globe. But Jóhanna had to use all her waking hours and all her energy on trying to save the Icelandic economy, because when she became Prime Minister our banks had collapsed and our country was in danger of bankruptcy. Therefore, we didn’t tell our story until she retired from politics in 2013 and we published the book that I wrote, at Jóhanna’s suggestion, about our relationship. The book is called Vid Jóhanna, or Jóhanna and I. Then, in the years that followed, we travelled to several Pride events and conferences in Europe, Canada and the US to talk about the book. Can you tell us about your latest novels The Faceless Woman (2020) and A Child’s Silent Scream (2019), what they are about and why you decided to write about the topics? My last five books are a series of crime-novels about a woman called Edda who is in her late sixties and has recently retired. Edda is a very active, energetic and curious woman who accidentally gets involved in all kinds of mysteries in her neighbourhood in Reykjavik. Her best friend is a gay man called Viktor, who is also her son’s boyfriend. I decided to write about Edda, as I wanted to show that older women can be both clever and funny. Edda is, perhaps, a very modern Icelandic Miss Marple. But the series is not a typical murder mystery … there is a lot of humour in it, too. I noticed you wrote a radio drama Pandemic (2009) about a family in isolation during a pandemic which coincides with nowadays corona times. How do you think your playwright reflects what the world is going through right now and where did you get the idea? However, you do not write only playwrights but also screenplays. Can you tell us a bit about play Bynhildur and Kjartan (2017) broadcasted on Icelandic TV? “The SARS outbreak, at the beginning of this century, made me think a lot about what it would be like for families to live together in total isolation for many weeks, because of a pandemic. I considered what people would need to buy and how they would pass the time, but I was mostly interested in how they would feel and how tensions within families would magnify when everyone had to share a comparatively small space for a long time. In my play, I focus on one family over a few weeks. Someone breaks the rules about not leaving the house, someone else becomes physically ill and has to consider not being allowed back in, if they leave the house etc. And secrets get revealed, as the home gradually becomes like a pressure-cooker. Luckily, SARS never reached Iceland and I had no idea that one day, in 2020, Jóhanna and I would self-isolate in our home for weeks. But that’s what happened, of course, and now we have had no other company for over two months … not even our grandchildren whom we miss so much. I think writers all over the world are probably busy writing books and scripts about life during Covid-19. I’m certain we will see a lot of fiction, films and plays about this strange time and the extreme pressure the coronavirus put on people in such different ways. It’s not only a health issue, it is also a huge economic issue, with so many people losing their jobs. We will be talking and writing about this for years, even if we are, at the same time, exhausted by it all. But it is important to learn from the mistakes that were made and be better prepared next time. Because, we are told there definitely will be a next time. The short-film, Brynhildur og Kjartan is also about people cut off from the outside world. They are an old couple and the man has dementia. When the wife has an accident inside their home, the man finds it difficult to help her, because of his illness. The script is loosely based on a short story that I wrote for a magazine, and then an Icelandic producer/director used it for this short film. Your artistic achievements and other work, such as being a founding member – and now honorary member - of The Women’s Literary Prize (Fjöruverðlaunin) in Iceland in 2007 and an long term assistant Editor of Nýtt Líf (women’s magazine) – is truly impressive. You really did a lot for women's and LGBT rights and in this sense, I am curious about your articles for women's magazine: what were the most important and frequent topics you tackled and why and what else should be done? How these articles and topics differ from your art work? I am extremely interested in how people cope with difficulties, and during my time at the women’s magazine, I focused on in-depth interviews with people who had had very dramatic life-experiences. I will forever be in dept to all those people, as they showed me huge trust and some of them told me things that they had never spoken of to anyone before. Many of them had suffered such tragic loss that you wondered how they could possibly carry on, but all of them had found some way of coping with the trauma. I still carry all those people’s stories with me and they still give me strength. The literary prize = I am extremely proud of The Icelandic Women’s Literary Prize, that I founded with some fantastic female writers. Many people were sceptical about this and asked if women needed a special prize because they couldn’t complete with male writers. That is completely wrong. We simply wanted to put wonderful books by women in the spotlight, as they tended to get overlooked in a male-dominated world of books. Now, the situation has improved slightly, but the women’s prize has become established and I hope it will carry on for a long time. You won numerous prizes for your work, from poetry to drama and novel competitions. You are also on the board of PEN International since 2015. Can you tell us which is the most important prize and why? The poetry prize that I received in 2008 – for one poem in a national competition – was a huge surprise. I had never had the confidence to publish poetry and never showed anyone my poems, but I decided to take part because you could do it anonymously. You just included a sealed envelope with your name and it would not be opened unless the panel of judges needed to contact you with good news. I was certain my poem and the envelope with my name would end in the shredder. Incredible! Regarding the Icelandic Chapter of PEN International, I must admit that I am utterly ashamed of my record there. I have not been active there, at all. Do you think that sexual orientation of the writer is important while doing theatre, radio and screen plays and novels with same-sex characters and do you think art should be progressive, conveying certain values, such as diversity, inclusiveness, freedom, democracy? This is a difficult question. I don’t think sexual orientation is necessarily important, even when writing about queer characters. Writers must be able to put themselves in other people’s shoes and see the world from different perspectives. Women have to be able to create credible male characters and vice versa, and the same goes for sexual orientation, ethnicity and many other factors. Regarding the latter half of the question, I think creative people have to be as free as possible from demands about their subject matter. But, of course, those values you mention are extremely important in human society and should be celebrated by everyone, not just artists. I hope I am not tedious with this question, you and your wife are famous for being the first and so far the only lesbian married couple as the head of the government in the world. How that made you feel regarding promotion of LGBT rights and raising awareness among other politicians you met through your wife's ministerial and prime ministerial duties? I saw you met former Slovenian president in 2011 – how were you treated by our former president and his wife? Do you think politicians should be more progressive? When foreign leaders come to Iceland on an official visit, the Prime Minister and his/her spouse usually host a formal party for them. This happened a few times while Jóhanna was Prime Minister, for example when Mr. and Mrs Türk visited our country. Jóhanna and I also went on two official visits together as a couple, to The Faroe Islands, our closest neighbours in the North Atlantic, and to China. As you can imagine, the latter was a most surreal experience. Such a big leap – from being in the closet for 15 years to being received as a couple by China’s PM in Beijing. All the leaders that we met during those occasions had one thing in common, no matter how the LGBT+ rights situation was in their country: They were all extremely polite. Naturally, I have no idea what they were thinking or what they really felt about being in a formal situation with a queer couple, posing for pictures and chatting over drinks and dinner. But not one single person, that we met in an official capacity, showed any hint of prejudice or rudeness. Everyone was relaxed and courteous. You have been in a relationship for 35 years, you have a son, two stepsons and nine grandchildren, what do you think it is the most important for a happy long lasting marriage/relationship? You obviously believe in monogamous marriage based on trust, reciprocity, honesty and faithfulness which is in my opinion very important. Do you think these are somehow (obsolete) values nowadays when so many people get divorced, have open relationships, threesomes, polyamorous relationships. What do you think of all these new forms of relationships and what do you think Bertrand Russel, who wrote about open marriage or open relationship in his book Marriage and Morals (first published in 1929), would say to these? Having had the experience of both a heterosexual and homosexual marriage, I can honestly say that there is no difference at all. I agree with my wife, who often says “love is simply love”. But, unfortunately, the society you live in can influence your chance of finding love and enjoying a happy relationship. The stress that comes with being queer in a country where your feelings are a crime must cause enormous pressure on LGBT+ couples. I’m afraid I don’t know the secret to a long and happy relationship. The situations that couples find themselves in are so different and whether a marriage can be saved or not depends on so many factors – not just romantic feelings, but also practical things like education, work, finances, childcare etc. Personally, I could never deal with being in an open marriage, but if it suits other people, then it is not for me to judge. What inspires you most in your work and in your personal life, where your inspiration comes? My main passion in life is an interest in people and all kinds of relationships – between friends, within families, in the workplace, in a marriage etc. That is what I most enjoy studying, reading about, thinking about and writing about. At last but not least, what are you currently working on and what are your plans for the future? I always have more than one project going at the same time. I have one novel that is “resting” in my computer and another one that I’m working on. And then there are some secret projects, too. If you could offer me some extra hours in the day, I would gratefully accept. I never have enough time to write, read or watch everything that I want to. I also need a better back, please. All this sitting at the computer is bad for my back, and I haven’t been able to visit my physical therapist for over two months due to Covid-19. Katarina Majerhold
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