I am a writer, editor, and literary translator working between English and Swedish. The recipient of grants from the PEN/Heim Translation Fund, the Swedish Arts Council, and others, I have a particular interest in writing that lifts voices and perspectives outside the mainstream. I write regularly on US issues in the Swedish press, often with a view to questions of community. Born in Stockholm, Sweden, I have lived in Helsinki, Paris, and Montréal; New York City has been my home for the past decade. 

I serve on the editorial board for Glänta, a Swedish magazine of arts and politics, and am an active member of SELTA, ALTA, and STINA. I am always interested in new projects. Get in touch! kira [.] josefsson [a] gmail [.] com

translations

  • The Details by Ia Genberg

    The Details by Ia Genberg

    The August Prize Winner is forthcoming on HarperVia (US) and Wildfire (UK), August 2023.

  • Shade and Breeze by Quynh Tran

    Shade and Breeze by Quynh Tran

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

  • Antiquity by Hanna Johansson

    Antiquity by Hanna Johansson

    “A sumptuous gaze on desire between women and the full spectrum of attraction that exists beyond the strictures of heteronormativity, and thus beyond easily legible categories. This queer Lolita story is as sensual as it is disturbing, as gorgeous as it is complicated, probing the depths of memory, power, and the narratives that arrange our experience of the world.”
    Forthcoming on Catapult, 2024.

  • The Trio by Johanna Hedman

    The Trio by Johanna Hedman

    “Like the love child of Normal People and Brideshead Revisited. A sublime and elegiac mediation on love, intimacy, freedom and jealousy […] Hedman’s writing (and Josefsson’s stunning translation) is staggeringly beautiful.” – Francesca Reece, author of ‘Voyeur’
    Penguin Hamish Hamilton, July 2022.

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original writing

  • 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.

  • “11 september-museet är en skräckens teater”

    “11 september-museet är en skräckens teater”

    “Denna allt överskuggande känsla av förlust och harm hänger löst i ett historiskt vakuum. Och varje år reser sig två spöktorn mot New Yorks himmel.”
    Göteborgs-Posten, 2021.

  • “Rättvisa utan fängelse och polis”

    “Rättvisa utan fängelse och polis”

    “Aldrig tidigare hade så många öppet ifrågasatt det fängelseindustriella komplexet – ett system som kommit att definiera USA.”
    Lång essä i Glänta om protesterna sommaren 2020 och en anrik aktivistisk tradition som rekonstruera hur vi ser på själva rättvisebegreppet.

    Skriven med stöd av Västra Götalandsregionens essäfond, publicerad våren 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

  • Reading of Pooneh Rohi’s Husk

    Reading of Pooneh Rohi’s Husk

    Reading from Pooneh Rohi’s acclaimed second novel, for Translators Aloud, 2022. The book is seeking a publisher.

  • Conversation with Hanna Johansson and Quynh Tran

    Conversation with Hanna Johansson and Quynh Tran

    An in-depth discussion of the award-winning debuts by Hanna Johansson and Quynh Tran
    Hosted by Swedish Book Review, May 2022.

  • Mentor for ALTA

    Mentor for ALTA

    Mentor to Brad Harmon who will be translating Monika Fagerholm’s Who Killed Bambi? in the ALTA Emerging Translator Mentorship, 2022

  • Women in Translation Month Reading Series

    Women in Translation Month Reading Series

    “We merged in the mirror. When I looked at her, it was as if I saw myself. When I kissed her I liberated her from something; her childhood, her mother.”
    Reading with Hanna Johansson from her prize-winning debut Antiken, organized by PEN America, 2021.

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