Confessions of a Milk Carton Poet

By Arndís Þórarinsdóttir

A hilarious story about a wayward good girl, a black-haired goth, a prejudiced math teacher, a cute quiz geek – and about all those questions that are so hard to answer.

Halla knows all about how important it is to make a good first impression, which is why on the first day at her new school she makes sure her hair is freshly washed and her clothes carefully chosen. The problem is that the rumor has got there before her: she is the infamous drug pusher from the West Side of town, kicked out of school at the tender age of thirteen. Halla can see only one way to avoid total social isolation. She must play along and leave the bookish nerd she used to be in the past. But leaving your old self and life behind turns out to be more difficult than she had expected. And what really happened to get her in this predicament?

Confessions of a Milk Carton Poet is Arndís Þórarinsdóttir’s first novel. This compelling and humorous teenage novel explores a person’s first crush and new friendships, but at its core Confessions is a story about finding your identity, facing prejudice, and accepting each other for who we are. 

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About the author

Arndís Þórarinsdóttir (b. 1982) is an award-winning Icelandic writer and translator. Before becoming a full-time writer, Arndís worked as a journalist and critic and was the head of department at the library in Kópavogur. She has an undergraduate degree in Comparative Literature and a postgraduate degree in Creative Writing from the University of Iceland, and earned another postgraduate degree in Writing for Performance from Goldsmiths College, University of London. Arndís has also written short novels for an educational institution, published articles and stories in newspapers and magazines, worked on translations and performed various social activities related to literature.Arndís lives in Reykjavík with her husband and two children.