I have worked as a translator since 2011—and full-time since 2018. My book-length translations into English include Ulla Lenze’s The Radio Operator (HarperVia, 2021), Michael Kempe’s The Best of All Possible Worlds (Pushkin/Norton, 2024), and Wolf Wondratschek’s Self-portrait with Russian Piano (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2020). My translations of short fiction have appeared in Harper’s, Two Lines Journal, N+1, and InTranslation.org, among others. 

My work has encompassed a range of genres: literary and commercial fiction; narrative nonfiction and pop science; children’s literature. In addition to my literary translations I have translated professional materials for companies in Germany and the United States, and news articles for the posteo.de newsroom on topics including tech, privacy, the environment, and human rights.

I worked for many years in book publishing, in particular in foreign rights. I was also assistant music editor at the Brooklyn Rail, a monthly arts journal, from 2013 to 2017. In that time I wrote music and literary criticism for the Rail and for outlets like Tiny Mix Tapes, Electric Literature, and Full-stop.net. I attended the University of Georgia in Athens, GA and Otto Friedrich University in Bamberg, Germany.

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I was trained as a guitarist and have played in bands since high school; in that time I've learned to play all the rock band instruments: guitar, drums, bass, piano - with a little banjo and accordion thrown in. Piano has been my main focus since 2019, when, after finishing my translation of Wolf Wondratschek's Self-portrait with Russian Piano, I went out and bought an old upright. 

From 2016 to 2020, with Jeff Gess and Dan Gold, I played drums and sang in Rube, a post-punk power trio masquerading as a honky tonk band. We recorded two albums with Jesse Mangum at the Glow Studio in Athens, GA.

More recently I played drums in the Glass Bead Band, with Matt Stadelmann. Our self-titled album was recorded by Martin Bisi at BC Studios and released in March 2024. Aquarium Drunkard called it "killer stuff."

With Laura Fisher, Ben Lasman, and Ryan Spencer I formed the dark dance-pop quartet Power Hour in 2022; I played bass. We released our debut album, Notice How Calm You Are, in June 2024.

I have also released several albums under the solo moniker Shelto Marx, beginning with Shelto Marx and His Plonking Piano in October 2021 and continuing to the most recent release, Shelto Lightens Up, from October 2025. I think of the style as "bedroom western swing"; my wife calls it "sad carousel music for adults."

I run a small record label called Luftmensch Records. The label's motto is "songs build little rooms in time."