We’re delighted to bring you this season’s newsletter, packed with good news for Chinese literature in English translation. Inside you’ll find free-to-read fiction, essays, and poems; awards and prizes making waves worldwide; and a wealth of reviews spanning many genres of Chinese writing. Our thanks to the volunteers who made this issue possible.

We hope you enjoy it!

Paper Republic News

• We are pleased to share the results of Paper Republic’s first Community Survey, which ran from 19 November 2025 to 24 February 2026—a total of three months. We received over 133 responses from members of our community, and we would like to extend our sincere thanks to everyone who took part and contributed their thoughts.
• The winner and runners-up of Voices of Today Literary Translation Prize were announced in June. We plan to publish the winning pieces online. Please stay tuned.

Cold Window Newsletter

Check out the two most recent issues of Cold Window Newsletter by Andrew Rule:

• The 14th issue covers a new state initiative to support young writers, two sci-fi novels that critique workplace culture, a roundup of notable new Chinese novels, and an invitation to join a book club reading the webnovel Transmigrating to the Ming Dynasty’s Imperial Examination.
• In the 13th issue, Andrew prepares a curated list of Chinese webnovel recommendations for new readers, compiled from dozens of industry professionals and fans, with links to available translations.

Free to Read Translations Online

• A new issue of Florescence (formerly The Taipei Chinese PEN) is well worth checking: no. 217, summer 2026, takes "She Writes" as its theme, giving space to the voices of women writers from Taiwan. The Mandarin originals of the works — poetry, essays and fiction — are also included in the journal, starting from page 81.

Fiction

• Two sci-fi stories in Clarkesworld: "The Animator and the Glazer" by Ju Chu 菊储 (tr. S. Qiouyi Lu) and "Three Cases from the Cosmic Psychiatric Clinic" by Pan Haitian 潘海天 (tr. Blake Stone-Banks).
• An excerpt from Yan Ming’s “Memories of the Rubber Forest” — the author's first long-form work of fiction — translated by Katherine Sun on the Asymptote blog.
• A Hong Kong short story, “The City of Walls” by Dung Kai-cheung 董啟章, translated by Penny Yeung, also on the Asymptote blog.
• A short story by Chen-Fu Hsu 徐振輔, “The Tu-Chuan with No Name”, translated by Coco Zhou in Samovar.
• An award-winning story, “Tropical Assassin” by Zhao Ting 赵挺, translated into English for the first time by Dylan Levi King, in The World of Chinese.
• “Quietly” by Yi Hsiao, translated by Cheryl Schmitz for Exchanges: Journal of Literary Translation.

Essay

• Yun Li’s essay on Saigon, “Saigon, in a Previous Life”, self-translated into English for Cha Journal.

Poetry

• Two poems by Tang Juan 唐捐 in Asymptote: “Autumn Rain,” translated by Kevin Dong, and "Little Zhao," written in memory of a deceased young poet, translated by Nick Admussen (with audio versions of the poems).
• Nicholas Wong’s translation of “Rain Studies” by Chen Poyu 陳柏煜 in The Margins.
• Two Chinese poems recently appeared on Poetry Daily: Dai Wangshu 戴望舒's “Autumn Night Reflections” (tr. Yilin Wang) and Wang Jiaxin 王家新’s “In the Native Place of Laozi” (tr. John Balcom).

Prizes and Awards

• In case you haven’t heard, Taiwan Travelogue by Yáng Shuāng-zǐ 楊双子, translated by Lin King, has won the International Booker Prize 2026.
• Yan An 阎安’s Rock Arrangement, translated by Chen Du & Xisheng Chen, a runner-up for Carnegie Mellon UP 2025 Literary Translation Prize, will be published in October 2026. An interview with the translators has been posted on the blog of Asymptote Journal, titled “To reach a place higher and farther: An Interview with Chen Du and Xisheng Chen on Translating Rock Arrangement by Yan An”. This piece is included in CLMP’s Reading List for the National Translation Month 2026. Check out the list here.
• On June 9, 2026, the Asia Society’s Center for U.S.-China Relations hosted the awards ceremony for the 2026 Baifang Schell Book Prize organized by China Books Review. Fang Fang 方方’s The Running Flame, translated by Michael Berry (Columbia UP), won the Award for Outstanding Literature on or from China and the Sinophone World.
• Chenxin Jiang’s translation of Yau Ching 游靜's for now I am sitting here growing transparent is a 2026 PEN Award finalist. (The complete list can be found here.)
• The 2026 Lucien Stryk Asian Translation Prize shortlist has just been announced, and it includes three poetry collections translated from Chinese: The Magpie at Night by Li Qingzhao 李清照, translated by Wendy Chen (Farrar, Straus and Giroux); Mirror by Zhang Zao 张棗, translated by Fiona Sze-Lorrain (Zephyr Press); and The Ruins by Ye Hui 叶辉, translated by Dong Li (Deep Vellum Publishing).

Book Reviews and Articles

• Tie Ning 铁凝’s The Passage of Roses, a bildungsroman that follows Mei, an artist that came of age during the Cultural Revolution, depicting the trials spanning generations of women during that period. This work was translated by Hongling Zhang and Jason Sommer (Sinoist Books) and is reviewed in Asymptote Journal and The Spectator (paywalled).
• Dorothy Tse 謝曉虹’s City Like Water, translated by Natascha Bruce (Graywolf Press), is reviewed in Cha Journal and LA Review of Books. Both agree that through Tse’s stories, Hong Kong stands as a site of collective memory, shaped by its inhabitants and all who have passed through it.
• Xu Zechen 徐则臣’s Night Train, translated by Jeremy Tiang (Two Lines Press), was reviewed by Nick Caistor for Book Blast and Jonathan Han for the Asian Review of Books. Caistor, for one, finds that Tiang’s sparkling translation makes the novel entirely convincing, capturing both the humor and the despair of many characters in street-wise American English.
• Syaman Rapongan’s Eyes of the Sky, translated by Kyle Shernuk (Columbia University Press), is a fascinating glimpse into the Tao, one of Taiwan’s indigenous peoples who live on Orchid Island. This book is reviewed by Filip Noubel for Asymptote Journal and Hilton Yip for the Asian Review of Books.

• The republication of Qian Zhongshu 钱钟书’s Fortress Besieged, translated by Jeanne Kelly and Nathan K. Mao (New Directions), was reviewed by Angus Stewart for Asian Review of Books. The new edition features a fresh introduction by Yiyun Li, who offers a more personal and pointed interpretation than any of her forerunners.
• Gerelchimeg Blackcrane’s picture book Aya Has Never Seen a Bear, illustrated by Jiu’er, translated by Paul Qiao and Helen Mixter (Aldana Libros), is included and reviewed in the reading list, Global Reads: Summer Children’s and YA Releases Spanning Four Continents by Words Without Borders.
• Wang Jiaxin 王家新’s poetry collection, At the Same Time: New and Selected Poems, translated by John Balcom (Arrowsmith Press), was reviewed in World Literature Today. The reviewer, Henry Hsiao, comments, “Reading Wang’s book is like seeing those very headlights appear—an intense and increasingly illuminating encounter”.
• Sidetracks by Bei Dao 北岛, translated from Chinese by Jeffrey Yang, is reviewed in Poetry Foundation “Bei Dao is a poet of restless curiosity and profound vision—enigmatic yet generous, intimate yet expansive. His poems move between the personal and the political with remarkable agility. Jeffrey Yang’s superb translation captures the intricate syntax, rhythm, and music of Dao’s outstanding work, bringing its full force and beauty into English.”
• Hanshan 寒山’s Cold Mountain Zen translated by Hiroaki Sato (New Directions, 2026) is reviewed in Asymptote’s July “What’s New in Translation.” Sato translated the Tang-dynasty Chinese poet Hanshan from Japanese, and the book gathers Japanese material about him alongside the poems.
• Laozi 老子’s Tao Te Ching: A New Translation, translated by the renowned philosopher of religion David Bentley Hart and his son Patrick Robert Hart (Yale University Press), is reviewed in Asymptote Journal and Providence Magazine.
• Two articles introducing YA literature from mainland China and Taiwan have been published by the Global Literature in Libraries Initiative.

Interviews

• Read this: Zhang Yueran 张悦然 on why she writes not to explain China, but to connect with your own life — via Reuters.

Translation Opportunities

• Translator Magazine is seeking translation pitches for Issue #5 (Dec). Looking for 2,000–6,000-word reportage, journalism, or first-person narratives — or non-fiction book excerpts — published after March 2026 and not yet in English. Pays 14p/word (first 3,000 words). Submit here.
• If you’re a Leeds-based writer, don’t miss this chance to join a free prose fiction workshop led by Yan Ge 颜歌 — a bilingual Chinese-English author with fourteen books in Chinese to her name, including six novels. Application close by 5 pm on 25th September, 2026 (UK time).

That's all for this time! Special thanks to the new volunteers whose help made this issue possible: Yixuan Wang, Liang Yin Shen, and Elizabeth Carney.