Kristjana Gunnars was born in Reykjavik, Iceland in 1948. She immigrated to Canada in 1969, after doing undergraduate work in Oregon. She has lived in rural BC, Vancouver, Toronto, Winnipeg, and Regina, where she took an MA in literature. Gunnars worked as a schoolteacher in rural Iceland, and taught English at the University of Regina and at the University of Alberta. Her poems have appeared in various journals in Canada and the US.