Last week saw the unveiling of the longlist for this year’s Blancpain-Imaginist Prize 宝珀理想国文学奖, one of China’s most prestigious awards for young writers. The prize has a history of identifying important writers early in their careers, and it has an especially strong track record for short-story writers, so scrolling through the nomination list is a good way to keep on the cutting edge of the Chinese literary fiction market. A few of the nominees have had their work translated into English before. Here’s a quick reading list to get familiar with them while we wait for the winner to be announced this fall.
Two nominees had novels released in English just this year:
张悦然 Zhang Yueran was nominated for the novel 《天鹅旅馆》(lit. Swan Hotel), which recently came out in a translation by Jeremy Tiang under the title Women, Seated. She has lots of other fiction available in English as well, including the novels Cocoon and The Promise Bird, both also translated by Jeremy Tiang.
杨好 Yang Hao, nominated for the fiction collection 《大眠》 The Long Slumber, has an earlier novel now out in translation: Diablo’s Boys, translated by Nicky Harman and Michael Day and published this year. For a taste of her style, you can also check out two of her rather harrowing shorter fantastical pieces: “World Map” and “Ritual,” both translated by Michael Day.
Two other nominees have been featured in the Cold Window Newsletter:
王占黑 Wang Zhanhei, nominated for the short story collection 《正常接触》 Normal Contact, has already won the Blancpain-Imaginist Prize once before for her 2018 collection 《空响炮》 Air Cannon. She was featured in CWN#1. Check out her translated short fiction in Granta #169 (translated by Dave Haysom) or The Book of Shanghai (translated by Christopher MacDonald), or read this 2018 profile of her from Neocha.
崔君 Cui Jun does not have any work available in English yet, but her nominated fiction collection, 《有山有谷》 Hills and Valleys, was covered in CWN#4.
And a final two nominees have scattered short fiction available elsewhere on the internet:
辽京 Liao Jing, nominated for the novel 《白露春分》 Spring Will Never Fall, has an earlier story entitled “The Apparitions” available on World of Chinese (translated by Zhang Yuqing).
双翅目 Shuang Chimu, nominated for the speculative fiction collection 《水星逆行》 Venus in Retrograde, is also the author of the unforgettable story “My Family and Other Evolving Animals,” translated by Carmen Yiling Yan for New Voices in Chinese Science Fiction.
See the full list of nominees below and in 理想国 Imaginist’s official announcement. A shortlist of five authors will be announced on September 15, and the final winner will be revealed during a livestreamed ceremony in October.
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