Eliza Reid

Eliza Reid (born 1976 in Ottawa, Canada) is a Canadian journalist and editor. She moved to Iceland in 2003, where she worked as a journalist and co-founded the Iceland Writers Retreat. From 2016 to 2024, she served as Iceland’s first lady while her husband, Guðni Th. Jóhannesson, was president. Her first book, “Secrets of the Sprakkar: Iceland’s Extraordinary Women and How They Are Changing the World,” became a bestseller in Iceland and Canada, was selected as an Editor’s Pick by The New York Times Book Review, and was translated into several languages. In 2024, she published her first novel, “Intrigue in Iceland.” Before her writing career, Reid was a member of a rowing team at Oxford and traveled through Russia and Central Asia on the Trans-Siberian Railway.