Saskia Maria Desiree Vogel (born September 17, 1981) is an American-Swedish author, translator, and editor. Her debut novel, Permission, explores the question âÂÂHow do I want to be loved?â through the story of a grieving young woman's relationship with the dominatrix next door who's renting a room to her oldest client. Set in coastal Los Angeles, it pursues a new understanding of the erotic and queer family-building. It was first published in English in 2019, and later in French, German, Spanish, Italian, and Swedish.
Vogel's work as a writer and translator centers hidden, underrepresented, and misunderstood narratives. Central themes of her writing include language, power, and sexuality. These themes carry over into her translation work, which expands into formal experimentation with language, trauma, migration, and Indigenous histories.
Vogel's translations and writing have appeared in publications such as Granta,àGranta Sweden, the New York Times, The New Yorker, The Paris Review,' The White Review, and The Quietus. She received an honorable mention from the Pushchart Prize in 2017 for her "Sluts", first published by The Offing. Her translation of Lina Wolff's The Polyglot Lovers (published by And Other Stories in 2019) was described by TLS as "an impeccable pairing, given VogelâÂÂs previous form with disrobers of the misogynist regalia". In 2024, her translation of Linnea AxelssonâÂÂs Aednan was a finalist for the National Book Award (Translated Literature): âÂÂÃÂdnan is a layered translation from the SwedishâÂÂa resonant telling of Sámi-speaking Indigenous peoplesâ lost language and migrant history, revealed by Saskia Vogel's inspired English rendering.âÂÂ
Currently residing in Berlin, Germany, Vogel has lived in Sweden, the UK, and the US.
Vogel started her career in 2007 as a managing editor at the AVN (Adult Video News) Media Network and then from 2010-2013 worked as Granta magazineâÂÂs global publicist. Since 2013, Vogel has been a freelance Swedish-to-English literary translator, translating leading Swedish authors such as Birgitta Trotzig, Balsam Karam, Karolina Ramqvist, Katrine Marcal, Johannes Anyuru, and Rut Hillarp.
Permission (2019), her debut novel, was published in six languages and was longlisted for the Believer Book Award.
Vogel completed her translation of the National-Book-Award-nominated novel-in-verse Aednan during her time as Princeton UniversityâÂÂs Fall 2022 Translator in Residence, and wrote about the translation process in the 2023 essay âÂÂThe Same River Twice: Notes on Reading, Time, and Translation.â She has hosted workshops on translation, writing, and the editing process. She has been a visiting speaker at a number of universities, including Konstfack Stockholm, UC Berkeley, Bard College Berlin, University of Paderborn, and the Free University of Berlin. She has also appeared at numerous festivals and events, including at the Literarische Colloquium Berlin, the London Literature Festival, the Edinburgh International Book Festival, the Internationales Literaturfestival Berlin, and Pordenonelegge.
Vogel worked with publisher and founderÃÂ Lucy Roeber to relaunch the magazine Erotic Review, reconceived for a contemporary audience in Spring 2024. Designed by Studio Frith, this new iteration of the 30-year-old British publication is reimagined as a platform for art and literature that explores humanity through the lens of desire. Vogel serves as deputy editor of the magazine.