Barbara Sjoholm

Barbara Sjoholm is a writer, editor, and translator whose work follows the cultures and landscapes of northern seas. The Pirate Queen describes four months of travel through Norway, Shetland, the Faroe Islands, Iceland, and Greenland. Seal Press first published the book in 2004. Sjoholm combines memoir, maritime history, folklore, and conversations with islanders. Grace, an Irish seafarer, provides one point of departure, but the narrative expands toward women who worked, governed, traveled, and preserved stories around northern coasts. A Seal Press electronic edition appeared in 2015. Sjoholm has also published fiction and translated Scandinavian writers from Norwegian and Danish. Those roles suit the movement of the book between historical figures and voices. Her account shows how legends change across languages, islands, and generations instead of offering a single life account.