Kira Josefsson is a writer and literary translator working between Swedish and English 

In her translation, Ia Genberg’s The Details was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize 2024, Judith Kiros’s O was a finalist for the Barrios Book in Translation Prize, and Johanna Hedman’s The Trio was on the shortlist for the Bernard Shaw Prize. 

She lives in New York City, where she writes on US issues in the Swedish press and organises with the National Writers Union. 

Her English language translation of Genberg’s Small Comfort was longlisted for the International Booker Prize 2026.

Author photo © Ben Tousley

Kira Josefsson

The dramatic distinctness of the five stories that make up Small Comfort speaks to the might of Genberg’s imaginative powers, while the intricate threads tying them together are testament to her subtleness as a thinker

— The International Booker Prize 2026 judges on Small Comfort

All nominated books