Eric lived in Beijing from late 2001, when he studied Chinese at the Central University for Nationalities, until the end of 2016. He began struggling through Wang Xiaobo at an early date, and kept at it through the intervening years. He is the recipient of a PEN translation grant for Wang Xiaobo's My Spiritual Homeland and a NEA grant for Xu Zechen's Running Through Zhongguancun, later published as Running Through Beijing, which was shortlisted for the National Translation Award.
His short-story translations have appeared in magazines including The New Yorker, Granta, and n+1. He also writes occasional cultural criticism, which has appeared in the New York Times and Foreign Policy, among other venues.
Eric also runs a US-based company called Coal Hill Books which provides rights agency and publishing consulting for Chinese and international publishers seeking to do business with each other. You can reach him there at eric@coalhillbooks.com.
By Eric Abrahamsen, November 7, '12
...you get Liu Cixin's science fiction masterpiece, The Three Body Trilogy. This afternoon was the translators' signing ceremony/press conference for the trilogy, where Ken Liu (present in spirit only), Joel Martinsen and I signed up to translate volumes one, two and three, respectively. Expect volume one to be announced at next year's BEA.
So who's publishing it? That's complicated.
By Eric Abrahamsen, October 25, '12
For anthology /Flash Fiction International/ forthcoming from distinguished publisher W.W. Norton, NY. The editors are looking for:
Recent very short stories from any country, in English translation, word limit 750 (1-3 pages). We usually reprint translations that have already been published (send us a copy) but will also consider original, unpublished manuscripts.
Deadline: March 15, 2013.
Contact: Robert Shapard, 3405 Mt. Bonnell Drive, Austin, TX, USA, 78731,rshapard@hawaii.edu.
(The other co-editors for the anthology are Christopher Merrill, director of the Iowa International Writing Program, and James Thomas.)
By Eric Abrahamsen, October 8, '12
So they say the next Nobel prize for literature will be announced this week (Thursday?), and you would not believe the number of people writing around for Mo Yan's contact information.
Dear Western media: leave the poor man alone! He's busy writing the next Great Chinese Novel.
By Eric Abrahamsen, September 20, '12
A few weeks ago we had a lively argument/discussion on a mailing list about the proper translation of the term 文艺青年 (wényì qīngnián, literally "arts and culture youth", or "arts and letters youth") – a common term for a certain cohort of under-30 Chinese identifiable by their ability to recite Haizi poetry from memory, their starry-eyed idealism, and their ownership of a digital SLR. They've now sort of become the cultural and lexicological heirs of the "educated youth" (知情) of yore.
By Eric Abrahamsen, August 13, '12
The Man Asian Literary Prize, is now accepting submissions for its 2012 prize round, deadline August 31, 2012. the MALP is awarded to a novel by an Asian writer, either written in English or translated into English, and already published: submission should be done by the publisher, up to three titles per imprint. The author of the winning novel receives a prize of 30,000 USD and the translator, if any, gets 5,000 USD.
The longlist will be announced December 4th, the shortlist January 9th, and the winner March 14th, 2013. See the MALP press release for more information.
By Eric Abrahamsen, August 10, '12
Litro magazine, a UK-based monthly "pocket" literary magazine, is preparing a China-focussed issue, and wants your translated short stories! See their home page via the link above for submission guidelines.
Edit: The deadline, I'm told, has been extended somewhat, so be swift!
By Eric Abrahamsen, August 7, '12
The 2012 Science Fiction and Fantasy Translation Awards have just been announced, with Chinese translations winning both the long form and short form prizes. Congratulations to John Balcom, who won for Huang Fan's Zero, and Ken Liu, who translated "The Fish of Lijiang", by Chen Qiufan.
More sci-fi!
By Eric Abrahamsen, July 29, '12
Take a look at David Haysom's new blog featuring translations of… things he likes, I presume! First translation is of Shi Tiesheng's Football.
By Eric Abrahamsen, July 24, '12
The NEA's 2013 Translation Grants have been announced; the only Chinese-language grant has gone to Sylvia Lichun Lin to translate The Lost Garden (迷园) by Taiwanese writer Li Ang (李昂).
Congratulations!
By Eric Abrahamsen, March 29, '12
A bit of good publishing news: the Italian publishing house Sellerio recently announced the purchase of three excellent Chinese novels to publish in Italy:
Excellent choices, and Paper Republic is pleased to have played a role, in a sort of back-room, smoke-wreathed, under-the-table kind of way.
By Eric Abrahamsen, March 4, '12
Chutzpah Magazine continues to publish ferociously, each issue with an English insert (titled Peregrine) featuring English translations of selected bits of the Chinese content. Issue six of Chutzpah just came out, and we're making all six Peregrines available for download:
By Eric Abrahamsen, January 19, '12
How to feel like a complete noob at the Chinese internet:
Step One: Browse weibo. Notice heated discussions about something called 目田, which apparently means "eye field". Have the vague feeling that you're not getting the joke.
Step Two: Finally catch on that 目田 (eye field) is just 自由 (freedom), with bits missing.
If only the internet censors were this slow…
By Eric Abrahamsen, January 11, '12
The 2011 Man Asian Literary Prize shortlist was announced yesterday, and we were thrilled to see Cindy Carter's translation of Yan Lianke's novel Dream of Ding Village appear as the only Chinese novel. This year's shortlist is long: an unprecedented seven books. Conventional wisdom might indicate that, since three of the past four prize-winners have been Chinese, Yan Lianke has something of an institutional handicap. Let's hope that's not the case—this is a very worthy book.
By Eric Abrahamsen, December 6, '11
We've had a pleasantly large (read: slightly overwhelming) number of requests for information about Pathlight magazine, and in the interest of keeping things manageable, have created a new page dedicated to Pathlight magazine here on the site: http://paper-republic.org/pubs/pathlight/
The main thing you'll want to do there is sign up for notifications about future issues. That will be an extremely low-volume mailing list, no danger that we'll be filling up your email inbox. The other thing you can do there is gawk at the cover and table of contents. Enjoy!
By Eric Abrahamsen, November 25, '11
Busy days for the Peony Literary Agency, who recently announced the sales of three books from two of their authors: Han Han's Youth and 1988: I Want to Talk to This World have both been bought by Simon & Schuster US, to be translated by Allan Barr and published in the second half of 2012; and Yan Geling's The Flowers of War (金陵十三钗), to Other Press, translated by Nicky Harman, to be published next January.
Congratulations!
For further information please contact Marysia Juszczakiewicz in Hong Kong at marysia@peonyliteraryagency.com, or Tina Chou in Shanghai at tina@peonyliteraryagency.com. Full press releases below:
