I am a writer, editor, and literary translator working between English and Swedish. My translation of Ia Genberg’s The Details was shortlisted for the 2024 International Booker Prize, and my translation of Johanna Hedman’s The Trio was shortlisted for the 2023 Bernard Shaw Prize. In 2017, my work on Pooneh Rohi’s The Arab won a PEN/Heim Translation Fund Grant. Born in Stockholm, Sweden, I have lived in Helsinki, Paris, and Montréal; New York City has been my home for more than a decade. I write on US issues in the Swedish press.

I serve on the editorial board for Glänta, a Swedish magazine of arts and politics, and am an active member of SELTA, STINA, and ALTA (where I am a two-time mentor in the Emerging Translators Mentorship Program).

translations

  • Shade and Breeze by Quynh Tran

    Shade and Breeze by Quynh Tran

    Quynh Tran’s prize-winning debut, forthcoming from Lolli Editions on October 25, 2024.

  • O by Judith Kiros

    O by Judith Kiros

    “O is unlike anything you have ever read. Judith Kiros’s astonishing talents manifest in language that holds the balance between beautiful and heartbreaking. This book, written by a brilliant and unflinching imagination, is quite simply a joy to read.” —Maaza Mengiste
    Out from World Poetry Books.

  • The Details by Ia Genberg

    The Details by Ia Genberg

    Shortlisted for the 2024 International
    Booker Prize.
    “Genberg’s marvelous prose is also a kind of fever, mesmerizing and hot to the touch.” – The New York Times Book Review.
    Out from Wildfire (UK) and HarperVia (US) (2023).

  • Antiquity by Hanna Johansson

    Antiquity by Hanna Johansson

    “What Hanna Johansson offers in her electric, unsettling debut refuses all protection and dares the reader to do the same. Kira Josefsson’s translation is its own marvel, the language brimming with just-kept chaos until the keeping’s no longer possible.” – Anna Moschovakis, author of Participation.
    Out from Catapult (US) and Scribe (UK).

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original writing

  • “Hur botar man en politisk depression?”

    “Hur botar man en politisk depression?”

    “Vad ska man göra när organiserandet – trots Joe Hills uppmaning – inte biter på sorgen?”
    Recension av Hannah Proctors Burnout i Under Strecket, Svenska Dagbladet, juli 2024.

  • “AI-böcker kan aldrig bli bra litteratur”

    “AI-böcker kan aldrig bli bra litteratur”

    “Ge fyra översättare en roman att jobba med och du kommer få fyra versioner av manus tillbaka.” Expressen, juni 2024.

  • USA:s Aktivister och gräsrötter kommer fortsätta hjälpa gravida i nöd

    USA:s Aktivister och gräsrötter kommer fortsätta hjälpa gravida i nöd

    “Utan egna budskap är det osannolikt att Demokraterna behåller sin majoritet i Washington efter valet i november. Men hur det än går kommer landets aktivister att fortsätta hjälpa gravida i nöd – också om rättvisans och politikens förmenta institutioner har vänt dem ryggen.” Dagens Nyheter, juni 2022.

  • “What’s So Hard About Crediting Translators?”

    “What’s So Hard About Crediting Translators?”

    “Beyond credit where credit is due, acknowledging the translator points at the cracks in the apparently smooth surface of how a story is told. Isn’t that where it gets even more interesting?” Vulture, December 2021.

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editing / collaborations

  • Åke Hodell’s The Marathon Poet, Translated by Fia Backström

    Åke Hodell’s The Marathon Poet, Translated by Fia Backström

    I edited Fia Backström’s translation of Swedish avant-garde poet Åke Hodell’s The Marathon Poet, published by Ugly Duckling Presse in 2020.

  • Ghost Life – Hauntings in the Society of Spectres by Göran Dahlberg

    Ghost Life – Hauntings in the Society of Spectres by Göran Dahlberg

    I edited Göran Dahlberg’s chapbook essay “Ghost Life – Hauntings in the Society of Spectres”, published by Multimedijalni institut, Zagreb, as part of their 2020 Vectors of Collective Imaginations series.

  • It Was Over When You Said What

    It Was Over When You Said What

    Twelve writers furrow the texture of the months, days, and heartbeats when they realized it was over––and the swirl of contradictory emotions that come after the break. Do you believe in life after love? Edited with Rider Alsop and designed by Sara Duell. Published by Topos Press in 2017.

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news

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