Nichola Smalley - Translator of the Month
After a whirlwind of abortive study and career choices (medicine, fashion, publishing), Nichola Smalley finally settled on literary translation in 2022. She has translated almost twenty fiction and non-fiction books for adults and a few children’s books from Norwegian and Swedish, and has been nominated for numerous awards. Her translation of Oliver Lovrenski’s Da vi var yngre / Back in the Day was shortlisted for the 2026 Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize, a prize she won in 2021 with her translation from Swedish of Andrzej Tichý’s Eländet / Wretchedness. She has a PhD in the use of slang in Swedish and English literature and lives in London.
How did you start translating Norwegian literature?
Swedish was my Scandinavian languages gateway drug, but I spent a fair bit of time in Norway in my early twentites and discovered a real love of Norwegian literature when I started reading Hanne Ørstavik, Vigdis Hjorth, Jon Fosse and Kjersti Rorgemoen. I suppose it was natural, as a translator of Swedish, to explore translating the other Scandinavian languages, though I have to say I’ve learned that Danish is a step, and an entire set of unfamiliar cultural references, too far! The first Norwegian novel I translated, Jostein Gaarder’s Dukkeføreren, came to me via a reader’s report I did for the editor who went on to buy it. It was a real pleasure to explore, in depth, the similarities and differences between Norwegian and Swedish rhythm, vocabulary and literary norms.
Your Swedish colleague, Helena Fagertun, was our Translator of the Month for May and she passed the baton to you (with the following questions):
The first time I heard of Nichola was when the Swedish author/translator Malte Persson was catsitting our cat Masjka while we were staying in ‘my’ author Kate Zambreno’s apartment. It turned out that he had catsat for Nichola in London and had started to wonder about this thing of translators having so many cats that needed looking after . . . but I won’t ask about that now, what I’d like to know is this:
• You translate from both Swedish and Norwegian and have translated pretty different kinds of books – do you find yourself having to think about different things depending on what language you’re translating from, or is the difference between the languages, when it comes to the act of translating them, no greater than the difference always is between two different projects?
I think it’s easy to underestimate how different Norwegian and Swedish actually are as languages. Sure, there’s a lot of shared grammar and vocabulary, and as a primarily Swedish speaker (after English, that is) I can read Norwegian and Danish without much difficulty. However, I feel that when I translate Norwegian it takes me longer to create a natural rhythm in English – much longer than I initially realised, and I think this is partly because my feel for the rhythm in Norwegian is less developed. It doesn’t pose a problem for me in my work, but it does mean I have to take more of a step back from my translated text to really get achieve the idiomatic flow I seek in my work.
• You used to work for the excellent publisher And Other Stories. Can you say something about how your role as an editor and your role as a translator have influenced each other? And what was it that led you to finally settle on being a translator full-time?
I didn’t actually work as an editor at And Other Stories (though I have done freelance editorial work elsewhere). By the time I left I was working primarily on publicity, though I also worked in sales and marketing (and the various other jobs you do when working for a tiny company). I would say what I gained primarily is an understanding of how the publishing industry in the UK (and to an extent the US) works – what people are seeking to publish and why. It made me much more realistic and discerning about how to talk about literature, but I suppose being a translator (I published my first book translation the year before starting at And Other Stories) also made me see the value of translations to the literary landscape and made me understand what translation really is in a way that many publishers don’t understand. I think my reason for deciding to focus exclusively on translation was just the joy of it! The pleasure of this creative, yet clearly defined skill. I’m grateful every day!
Do you have a theory about why so many translators have cats, or why cats seem to be really happy living with translators?
Maybe because we’re always at home?? :) And we don’t have the money to heat our houses properly, so having a little friend sit on your lap is very welcome (at least for six months of the year)
Which of the (Norwegian) books you’ve translated have been the most fun?
Oliver Lovrenski’s Da vi var yngre / Back in the Day was an absolute riot to translate. The pace, the inventiveness, the rawness and directness combined with deep insight and tenderness. It was truly a pleasure and a privilege.
In your opinion, what distinguishes a good translation from an exceptional one?
It’s got to be the conviction of the voice. I recently read a review by the poet, translator (from German into English) and critic Michael Hofmann. He was talking about a poet who had been translated many times by various translators, in his opinion unsuccessfully, and he said something that really struck me: ’What frustrates their enterprise is an inability to decide what matters and what doesn’t . . . They are so afraid of getting lost that, inevitably, they end up getting lost.’ I may sometimes fail in this, but I always seek to understand why an author has written something a certain way, so I can decide for myself how I’m going to write it. I feel like the very best translations are those where the translator has a really clear sense of the author’s voice and why they’ve chosen it, and has the conviction to fully inhabit that voice for themselves.
What’s your favourite translation memory?
It’s not really one particular memory, but all the memories of the community of smart, funny, creative people I’ve met through translation – people who I’ve found to be incredibly generous and supportive. All the translation conferences, book fairs, talks, trips to the pub (especially the ones in the middle of the afternoon when we’re supposed to be working). I would literally be nowhere without my translator colleagues, and I cherish the memories of the times we’re spent together.
Which question should we have asked you?
WHY IS MY DESK SUCH A MESS ALL THE TIME??
Unfortunately I don’t know the answer, can you help me tidy it up please??
We hope you’re ready to pass the baton to a colleague who also translates from Norwegian. Who would you like to hand off to, and what would you like to ask them?
I want to nominate Lucy Moffatt as the next translator of the month.
The reason I want to hear from Lucy is that I’m fascinated by her research skills! Lucy’s a brilliant and sensitive translator, often working on really challenging non-fiction texts that involve a lot of fact-checking on her part. I’m lucky to count her as a friend and even view her as a collaborator of sorts, as I regularly turn to her when I have some query over a specific Norwegian word or phrase I can’t get my head around. Not only does she often know the answer, but she often sleuths her way to which text I’m working on or where a given quote has come from.
So my question to Lucy is:
What’s the secret to your brilliant research skills? Please divulge the tricks of your trade!!
Read more
More about Nichola on Books from Norway
Those of you who understand Norwegian can read her interview in full here.
More interviews in NORLA’s series
Translators are our most important stakeholders when it comes to the spread of Norwegian literature in the world. Their work is of crucial significance, and in order to shed light on this, we embarked on this series of interviews, known as ‘Translator of the Month’.
You can find all of the interviews here
