Introducing the 2025 Snorri West Alumni Intern
Snorri West has selected its 2025 Alumni Intern: Karítas Hrundar Pálsdóttir, PhD, of Reykjavík, Iceland. She was a 2019 Snorri West participant who visited the Pacific Coast corridor of British Columbia and Washington State with three other young women.
It was wonderful to discover and connect with a first cousin three times removed; it made the history (emigration) taught in Icelandic schools feel so personal, and the world so small,” says Karítas Hrundar Pálsdóttir, reflecting on one of the highlights of her experience. “I treasure the connections I made and have ever since been dreaming about participating in the big Icelandic community celebrations.”
Karítas is a well-traveled young woman. As a child, she lived in Denmark and Minnesota where she graduated from Irondale High School in Mounds View, Minnesota. During her BA studies at Haskóli Íslands (University of Iceland), Karítas spent one year at Waseda University in Tokyo, Japan. Her MA in creative writing is from Háskóli Íslands and her PhD in creative writing is from the University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom.
Not one to sit still for long, Karítas is the author of two “flash fiction” collections published by Una útgáfuhús in Iceland, Árstíðir (2020) and Dagatal (2022), designed for adult learners of Icelandic as a second language, for which she received the Icelandic Language Council Award 2022 and the Icelandic Gender Equality Fund in 2020. Additionally, she has published teaching material: a workbook and an ebook with language games to accompany Árstíðir. A third book of stories, Vikuspá, is due this summer.
In her rare downtime, Karítas says, “I love going for long walks, taking photographs, dancing, swimming, cooking, knitting, reading, and watching movies.”
While a Snorri West alumni intern, she would love to use her “experience of teaching and writing literature for language learners to inspire interest in the Icelandic language and literature,” and also describes herself as, “passionate about storytelling and finding creative ways of presenting history.”
Karítas is tentatively scheduled to spend about three weeks in Manitoba, from approximately July 22 through August 10, assisting with: the Icelandic Collection at the University of Manitoba under Katrín Nielsdóttir; Icelandic Camp near Gimli under Brad Hirst; the New Iceland Heritage Museum under Julianna Roberts, who has also graciously offered to host a reading of selections from Karítas’ books; Íslendingadagurinn under administrative manager Thora Palson; and explore the greater New Iceland/Interlake area with Kent Björnsson and INL Iceland (ÞFÍ).
Are you related to Karítas? She is looking forward to meeting her extended Western Icelandic family who may live or be visiting in the heart of Nýja Ísland during this 150th anniversary milestone. Find her on the Icelandic Roots database, using her name or her Icelandic Roots number I487327 (remember that a capital letter “I” for individual precedes the numbers when using the database). Other than the 3rd cousin discovered during her 2019 Snorri West trip in Washington state, so far the closest relatives we’ve identified in Manitoba are 5th cousins. Let us know what your relationship is to her by emailing
We look forward to keeping up with Karítas this summer as she will likely be contributing to the Snorri Programs’ social media platforms and perhaps use her skills to write about her experience. The Snorri West Alumni Internship would not be possible without the support of the Icelandic National League of North America (INLNA) for providing funding; the Icelandic National League of Iceland (Þjóðræknisfélag Íslendinga, a.k.a. ÞFÍ) for providing funding; the Snorri Foundation, project managers Julie Summers and Atli Geir Halldórsson, for all their help, including supporting interaction between the various Snorri related programs and sharing a gift card; Icelandair for partial funding assistance of the flights; and all the previously mentioned organizations and individuals who will host and oversee Karítas.