Born in Painesville, Ohio, into a bilingual family (her father's native language was Finnish), Kathy Saranpa received her bachelor of arts (summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa) and master of arts in Scandinavian languages and literature from the University of California, Los Angeles. She defended her dissertation at Yale University under the late George C. Schoolfield, an internationally renowned scholar and translator. She taught translation at the University of Eastern Finland before turning to full-time freelance translation. Dr. Saranpa has lived in Lund, and through her research on the Finland-Swedish writer Ina Lange, has visited Copenhagen many times. Her two children are both professional musicians living in the United States. Dr. Saranpa lives outside Berlin. A Silenced Voice: The Life of Journalist Kim Wall is her first published translation.