Translation – Kira Josefsson

selected translations

Shade and Breeze by Quynh Tran

Quynh Tran’s prize-winning debut, forthcoming from Lolli Editions, 2024.
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
Forthcoming from World Poetry Books,
Sept. 2024.
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

“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).
The Trio by Johanna Hedman

Shortlisted for the 2023 Bernard Shaw Prize.
Out from Penguin Hamish Hamilton (2022) and Europa Editions (2023).
From The London Girl by Susanna Alakoski

“August fever. The skerries were a reddish yellow and the sun seemed tired as it labored to reach the top of the firs. The shadow side of the pines stood mirrored in the water. Greta squeezed her purse. In it: the dictionary. In it: the passport.” Published in Swedish Book Review, 2021.
“The Fire Inside”
by Aleksander Motturi

“There is, lastly, a fire that lives inside of us, which glows in the spark of life, and erupts when dreams are cut short.” Published in the James Baldwin Review, fall 2021.
“The Ice-Swimming Renaissance” by Josefin Olevik

“A longtime winter swimmer once told me that these cold dips are known as the lazy man’s marathon.” Published in Stranger’s Guide, 2021.
From Au Pair by Cecilia Hansson

“The almost shameful experience of having taken care of children, of having cleaned up the messes of others. An experience I was initially proud of, until I realized I’d better not be.” Excerpt from the novel, published in StatORec, 2020.
“They Will Drown in Their Mothers’ Tears” by Farnaz Arbabi

Farnaz Arbabi’s screenplay for Unga Klara, based on Johannes Anyuru’s book with the same name. For Unga Klara, 2020. Photo by Mats Bäcker.
“My Body Has Failed Me and Now I’m About To Die” by Cecilia Hansson

“‘Take the comforter, open the balcony door, I need air,’ I hiss at my husband as the pressure on my ribs hardens. But nothing helps.” Published in StatORec, 2020.
From The Possibility of Love by Helena Granström

“If I’d learned anything from my several years as a professional writer, it’s that these are precisely the messages you should refrain from answering, these are the exact correspondents you should under no circumstances engage since their hunger is insatiable.” Selected for Best of Tupelo Quarterly, out in 2022.
Condiments by Caroline Dafgård Widnersson

Condiments, a cookbook by Caroline Dafgård Widnersson. Published by Murdoch Books in 2020.
Close to Birds by Mats and Åsa Ottosson

Essays by Mats Ottosson and Åsa Ottosson, with photographs by Roine Magnusson. Published by Roost Books in 2019. “[The translation is] outstanding . . . Graceful, warm, and idiomatic.” – WHRO Media
“Peter Handke’s Nobel Condones Violence” by Johannes Anyuru

“Power creates a certain unreality, since its violence always gets there first: Power puts you in front of violence as a fait accompli, and now it is you who appear violent when you protest.” Published in The Nation, 2019.
“Migraine” by Arne Dahl

“I slam the door open. This room is bigger, brighter. In the distance, a clearing of light: flashing, piercing, corrosive.” Short story published by Novellix in 2019 as part of a Swedish Crime series.
“How I Spend My Days and My Nights” by Håkan Nesser

“It was November, a Thursday night. I came in from a rainstorm on its twelfth hour; there were no other people in the bar. Just a tall, slightly oblique man around 45 years of age, his right hand firmly gripping a glass of whiskey.” Short story published by Novellix in 2019 as part of a…
“Märet is Dreaming About a White Reindeer” by Fausta Marianovic

The reindeer walk their meandering trails, stepping into each others’ tracks. They look like a string of pearls draped across the white neck of the fell, a piece of jewelry made from their pearly bodies.” Published in Exchanges: Journal of Literary Translation, 2019.
“Alhambra” by Johannes Anyuru

“So if I speak of peace now, in the belly of capitalism, in this mill, I speak of preserving difference. I am not talking about peace because I want to bring harmony to the conflict that has made me who I am, but because I want to preserve the person I am.” Published in Words…
“The Victor” by Pooneh Rohi

“But of course, that morning it was abundantly clear. You fucking couldn’t help but seeing it all. It was there, bright red in front of you as soon as you opened your eyes.” A radio play about revelations of racism in post-election Sweden. Read by Kaneza Schaal and published by Triple Canopy, 2018.
“Att gilla kvinnor” av Andrea Long Chu

“Rikligheten i våra begär är hisnande. Kanske är det därför som att komma ut kan kännas som att vara kär, därför som den första klänningen kan kännas som den första kyssen, därför dysfori kan kännas som ett brustet hjärta.” Publicerad i Glänta, 2018.
“The Translator Relay: Kira Josefsson”

“I really do think of translation as magic. This doesn’t mean it happens without a lot of effort, of course. Magic isn’t spontaneous but requires a lot of skill and finessing. Witches are hard workers.” Written interview in Words Without Borders, 2017.
“Araben” by Pooneh Rohi

“He pulls up his shoulders against the cold and tries to clear his mind, tries to think about something else, tries to feel something else, but it’s impossible. The other country is insistent within him. It pushes against his ribs, pulses with his heart.” Excerpt of the PEN/Heim winning translation in Granta, 2017.
“Den öppet förda boken” av Anne Boyer

“Idén om en ‘transparent redovisning’ är beroende av att någon ska stjäla så att lönsamhetens önskvärdhet kan bekräftas. Det är som att äktenskap kräver otrohet, eller som att journalistik kräver poeter, eller som att familjen kräver att barn ibland rymmer.” Publicerad i Glänta, 2015.