Welcome to America (World Editions, 2019), written by Linda Boström Knausgård (The Helios Disaster, October Child) and translated from the Swedish by Martin Aitken, has been longlisted for the American Literary Translators Association’s annual National Translation Award in Prose.
Martin Aitken is a full-time translator of Scandinavian literature. Working mainly from Danish and more recently Norwegian, he has translated the works of writers such as Kim Leine, Helle Helle, Peter Høeg, and Karl Ove Knausgård. His recent translation of Hanne Ørstavik’s Love was a finalist for the 2018 National Book Award. Welcome to America is his first book from Swedish.
Linda Boström Knausgård is a Swedish author and poet, as well as a producer of documentaries for national radio. Her first novel, The Helios Disaster, was awarded the Mare Kandre Prize and shortlisted for the Swedish Radio Novel Award 2014. Welcome to America, her second novel, was nominated for the prestigious Swedish August Prize and the Svenska Dagbladet Literary Prize. October Child is forthcoming from World Editions in 2021.