Shauna Laurel Jones

In 2005, midway through my master’s degree in art history, I decided I wanted to move from California to Reykjavík, and in 2007, that dream became a reality. At the time, the Icelandic art world was booming like never before, so I was optimistic that ample opportunities would await a newly minted, native English-speaking art historian. Iceland was, in fact, a land of plenty for all, with economic growth that almost seemed too good to be true – because it was. By autumn 2008, the nation would pay the price for the scandalous investment strategies and insider trading by the útrásarvíkingar, the notorious venture Vikings.

In response to a call by women’s literary magazine Mslexia for a “Timepiece” essay on the year 2007, I submitted a brief account of my eager-eyed immigration against the backdrop of the economic soap bubble that was soon to pop. The piece appeared in print in Issue 107 (Autumn 2025).