Literary translator, Norwegian to English.
Dubuque, IA
Joined December 2020
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Maybe someday I'll pull a Walter Benjamin and write a translator's preface that makes no reference whatsoever to the work I've just translated
This, and much else, is explained in my afterword. Sincerely, "they" (a.k.a. the translator)
David M. Smith retweeted
We were thrilled to see David M. Smith’s (@smithigans_wake) translation of Thure Erik Lund’s THE MYSTERY OF WHAT BEFELL IN THE DITCH reviewed by Sukhdev Sandhu in the @guardian at the weekend.
‘A universal story of modernity and its discontents’
theguardian.com/books/2026/o…
My ALTA49 haul. Thanks @Powells, @motherfoucaults, Word Virus and Annie Bloom’s Books—everyone check them out if you’re in Portland!
Amen! "[A] universal story of modernity and its discontents ... prescient about the 'language forms' that digital capitalism requires – the data and information, the 'demonic and inhuman' scientism, the fear of allegory." theguardian.com/books/2026/o…
Knausgård said it couldn't be translated. Somebody had to try, anyway! My translation of Thure Erik Lund’s sprawling, unholy mess of a novel is upon us. Thanks to Thure Erik Lund, NORLA, @andothertweets, @nordicnovellas and so many others for paving the way.
David M. Smith retweeted
David M. Smith's jaw-dropping translation of Thure Erik Lund's THE MYSTERY OF WHAT BEFELL IN THE DITCH publishes today across the UK, Europe and North America.
'Thure Erik Lund is Norway's greatest contemporary writer'
Karl Ove Knausgård
andotherstories.org/the-myst…
David M. Smith retweeted
Finished. 🤯🤯🤯
I did not know what to expect.
But what I least expected was to discover that Thomas Bernhard and Laszlo Krasznahorkai and Martin Heidegger made a Norwegian baby who grew up to write one of the most insane, weird novels I've ever had the pleasure to read.
David M. Smith retweeted
Honored to be interviewed by @Vagant_red about my translation work. In which we discuss Tor Ulven, Leander Djønne, Pete Buttigieg?? Dua Lipa??? @mountain_goats ????
David M. Smith retweeted
THE RUINS and THE CALF have been longlisted for 2026 National Translation Awards!
David M. Smith retweeted
Every fact I try to trace turns out to be a lie. In a 1987 study of Laurel and Hardy, the author claims Stan Laurel cross-bred potatoes and onions, producing a noxious vegetable he couldn't convince anyone to eat. The claim appears in several later biographies. But ... 🧵
David M. Smith retweeted
Dear book reviewers,
If you are reading a book in translation, please remember that every single word you are reading was chosen by the translator. Every. Single. Word. Sometimes even agonized over for hours, or days. There are two authors of a translated book, not one.
David M. Smith retweeted
Dear @Chris_Byrd , thank you for that long and interesting article on the work of Mathias Énard in the NYRB. Some mention of the translations themselves would have been welcome. The work of Énard is also the work of Mandell and Wynne.
