http://www.bl.uk/whatson/events/event127226.html

Shi Cheng: City Stories from China - The official launch at the London Book Fair 2012
Featuring Han Dong, Xu Zechen, Julia Lovell and Nicky Harman
Wednesday 18th April, 6.30pm - 8pm
Conference Centre, British Library, 96 Euston Road, London, NW1 2DB

Authors Han Dong and Xu Zechen read their stories from Comma's new city-themed anthology, Shi Cheng, and discuss the importance of short story writing and the challenges of the translation process with translators Julia Lovell and Nicky Harman.

Han Dong was born in Nanjing, 1961. . Han Dong began writing in 1980, and has been a major player on the modern Chinese literary scene since the 1990s. He is well-known as one of China's most important avant-garde poets, and is becoming increasingly influential as an essayist, short story writer, blogger and novelist. He's also been vocal about the state of contemporary Chinese literature - see his author page here for some recent blogs and interviews in English.

Xu Zechen has published three novels, Midnight's Door, Night Train and Heaven on Earth, and a collection of short stories entitled How Geese Fly up to Heaven. He has won several prizes within China for new and promising writers, and is generally considered one of the burgeoning new stars of China's literary scene. He'll have plenty to say about how and why he writes.

This event is supported by the British Council and GAPP as part of the China Market Focus 2012 cultural programme at The London Book Fair. In association with the Confucius Institute Manchester.