Marry Ailonieida Somby was born in Tana, Norway, studied at the University of Tromsø, and in her early years worked with puppet theatre. She has lived in North and South America, but has since returned to Norway.
She published her first children’s book in Sami, Ámmul ja alit oarbmælli in 1976 and went on to publish a number of books, of which several have been translated into Norwegian. Mu Apache ráhkesvuohta./Krigeren, elskeren og klovnen, her first poetry collection, was published in 1994 in a Sami-Norwegian dual-language edition.
