Harvill Secker Young Translators Prize this year is from Chinese
By Nicky Harman, April 17, '12
All details here. Go for it!
Nicky Harman
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Nicky Harman lives in the UK. She translates full-time from Chinese, focussing on contemporary fiction, literary non-fiction, and occasionally poetry, by a wide variety of authors. When not translating, she spends time promoting contemporary Chinese fiction to English-language readers. She works for Paper-Republic.org, a non-profit registered in the UK, where she is also a trustee. She writes blogs (for instance Asian Books Blog), give talks and lectures, and takes part in literary events and festivals, especially with the Leeds Centre for New Chinese Writing. She also mentors new translators, teaches summer schools (Norwich, London, Warwick and Bristol), and judges translation competitions. She tweets, with Helen Wang, as the China Fiction Bookclub @cfbcuk.
She taught on the MSc in Translation at Imperial College until 2011 and was co-Chair of the Translators Association (Society of Authors) 2014-2017.
Winner of the 2020 Special Book Award of China; the 2015 Mao Tai Cup People's Literature Chinese-English translation prize; and of first prize in the 2013 China International Translation Contest, Chinese-to-English section, with Jia Pingwa’s "Backflow River", 倒流河
Forthcoming publications:
Diablo's Boys, A Novel (《男孩们》) Annabel Yang Hao, co-translated with Michael Day, Balestier, 2024
Fellow Feelings, Collected stories by Han Dong, co-translated with Megan Copeland and Jack Hargreaves, no publications details yet
2023 publications:
Shaanxi Opera, （《秦腔》）, Jia Pingwa, co-translated with Dylan Levi King, Amazon Crossing, 2023.
The Sojourn Teashop （《暂坐》）, Jia Pingwa, co-translated with Jun Liu, Sinoist Books, 2023
2022 publications:
Flight of the Bumblebee (《野蜂飞舞》）Huang Beijia, Balestier , 2023
Wake Me Up at Nine in the Morning, (《早上九点叫醒我》）, A Yi, Oneworld
Literary Lectures (《文学课》) , by Bi Feiyu, Routledge
Dinner for Six (《六人晚餐》), co-translated with Helen Wang, Balestier
I Want to be Good (《我要做好孩子》) , Huang Beijia, New Classic Books
2021 publications:
More Than One Child: Memoirs of an Illegal Daughter, Shen Yang, Balestier
2020 publications:
Oriental Silk, by Zhu Xiaowen, Hatje Cantz (Germany)
2019 publications:
Broken Wings, By Jia Pingwa, ACA Publishing
2018 publications:
The Chilli Bean Paste Clan, by Yan Ge, Balestier Press (awarded a PEN Translates grant)
Our Story: A Memoir of Love and Life in China, by Rao Pingru, Knopf Doubleday (awarded a PEN Translates grant)
2017 publications:
Jia Pingwa, Happy Dreams, Amazon Crossing, 2017.
Fish Tank Creatures, by Dorothy Tse, short story, translated with Natascha Bruce
2016 publications:
Crystal Wedding, novel by Xu Xiaobin, Balestier Press, 2016 (awarded a PEN Translates grant). (Longlisted for the Financial Times / Oppenheimer Funds Emerging Voices Awards)
2015 publications:
Paper Tiger, essays by Xu Zhiyuan, co-translated with Michelle Deeter, Head of Zeus, 2015 (awarded a PEN Translates grant).
Sissy Zhong by Yan Ge, published READ PAPER REPUBLIC.
January:Bridges, by Dorothy Tse, published READ PAPER REPUBLIC. The translation and editing of this story is discussed and illustrated here: Free Word Centre.
Also, 2015-2016, READ PAPER REPUBLIC short story series: launching, planning, translating, editing, promotion and publicity.
2014 publications:
The Book of Sins by Chen Xiwo published by FortySix, October 2014.
White Horse, novella by Yan Ge, Hope Road Publishing, October 2014.
A Tabby-cat's Tale by Han Dong, winter 2014.
The Unbearable Dreamworld of Champa the Driver by Chan Koon-chung, Doubleday, April 2014.
Snow and Shadow, short story collection by Dorothy Tse, East Slope Publishing, March 2014.
A New Development Model and China’s Future, by Deng Yingtao, Routledge, March, 2014.
The Stone Ox that Grazed, short story by Sun Yisheng in Asymptote, April 2014.
A Loud Noise, poems by Han Dong, March 2014.
Other Published Translations in date order:
Urban Control and the Modernist City - essay by Leung Man-Tao, in LA Review of Books, originally appeared in Paper Republic, August 2013.
Woman Fish, by Dorothy Tse, for the Guardian newspaper, March 2013
The Shades who Periscope through Flowers to the Sky, by Sun Yisheng, for Words Without Borders, December 2012, and Dad, Your Name is Bao Tian, by Sun Yisheng, for The World of Chinese, March 2013.
Old Man Xinjiang, by Xue Mo, in China Stories for the Guardian newspaper, April 2012.
The Man with the Knife by Chen Xiwo, for Words Without Borders, November 2012
'Goodbye to Anne', in the novella collection The Road of Others, by Anni Baobei, Makedo Publishing, 2012.
Throwing out the Baby, by Xu Zechen, in Words Without Border, April 2012.
Shi Cheng: Short Stories from Urban China, Comma Press "Tales from Ten Cities" series, the two by Han Dong and Ding Liying, 2012
Flowers of Nanjing by Yan Geling, , published by Chatto and Windus, January 2012
A Phone Call from Dalian: Selected Poems by Han Dong, published by Zephyr Press, April 2012. Multiple reviews including World Literature Today and Peony Moon
The Eye of the Eagle, short story by Bai Hua, published by Hope Road Publishing
Prize-winning novel Gold Mountain Blues/Jin Shan by Zhang Ling, published by Penguin Canada
Short stories for Ou Ning's Shenzhen & Hong Kong Bi-city Biennale of Urbanism/Architecture, 2009, and literary magazine Chutzpah, 2010 and 2011.
Message from Unknown Chinese Mothers (Author: Xinran), Chatto & Windus, 2010.
China Witness (author: Xinran), oral history Co-translator with Esther Tyldesley and Julia Lovell. Chatto & Windus , 2008.
Banished! (author: Han Dong) (《扎根》 韩东), novel. University of Hawai’i Press, 2009. Won a PEN Translation Fund Award (2006) for this work. Longlisted for Man Asian Literary Prize, 2008.
‘Long Corridor, Short Song’ (author: Zi Ren, in To Pierce the Material Screen: An Anthology of 20th Century HK Literature, to be pub. Renditions, Hong Kong 2008); (《长廊的短调》 梓人) short story.
China Along the Yellow River (author: Prof. Cao Jinqing, pub. Routledge Curzon, December 2004); (《黄河边的中国》 曹锦清) sociology of rural China.
K – The Art of Love (author: Hong Ying, pub. Marion Boyars, 2002); (《K》 虹影) novel.
Research publications:
Li Hao: Translation of Contemporary Chinese Literature in the English-speaking World: An Interview with Nicky Harman, The AALITRA Review, No 4 (2012)
What's that got to do with anything? Coherence and the translation of relative clauses from Chinese. In Journal of Specialised Translation (www.jostrans.org) issue 13, January 2010
Foreign Culture, Foreign Style: a Translator’s View of Modern Chinese Fiction. In Perspectives: Studies in Translatology 14(1): 13-31. (2006).
Beyond Paper Dictionaries: Mining the Web for Technical Terminology in Chinese (available from http://isg.urv.es/cttt/cttt/research.html, or on request from NH).
Visiting Fellow at the Research Centre for Translation at Chinese University Hong Kong, April 2006. Visiting Scholar, Fudan University and Beijing University, China, 2008.
Nicky Harman translated for READ PAPER REPUBLIC, week 3, 2 July 2015, and READ PAPER REPUBLIC, week 10, 20 August 2015.
Read Now: On Paper Republic
| One Night on the Wharf | by Han Dong | February 01, 2022 |
| View from a Window | by Han Dong | April 16, 2020 |
| Hide! Hide! Hide! | by Yan Geling | March 28, 2020 |
| Letter to My Mother | by Ou Ning | October 04, 2018 |
| Dad Your Name is Field-Keeper | by Sun Yisheng | February 04, 2017 |
| Gu Jieming – a Life | by Han Dong | June 09, 2016 |
| The Bathtub – Scene of a Struggle | by Han Dong | May 12, 2016 |
| Snow | by Xu Xiaobin tr. Natascha Bruce and Nicky Harman | March 24, 2016 |
| That Damned Thing She Said | by Fu Yuli | March 03, 2016 |
| Backflow River | by Jia Pingwa | February 25, 2016 |
| Apery | by Sun Yisheng | January 28, 2016 |
| The Cry of the Deer | by Han Dong | January 21, 2016 |
| Sissy Zhong | by Yan Ge | August 20, 2015 |
| January: Bridges | by Dorothy (Hiu Hung) Tse | July 02, 2015 |
Read Now: Around the Web
| The Cry of the Deer | by Han Dong | Pathlight: New Chinese Writing |
| Mother Earth (excerpt) | by Chiu Zu-Yin | Books from Taiwan |
| Free! | by Wang Bang | Words Without Borders |
| Old Man Xinjiang | by Xue Mo | The Guardian |
Book Publications
Original Works
Non-fiction (1)
All Translations
Poem (27)
- Dialogue
- News
- So Dispassionate
- Waitress
- Crossing the Lingdingyang, the Lonely Sea
- In Shenzhen, to a Group of Friends
- Love Life
- Absurd Winter Scene
- Pain
- Growing Up Is a Mistake
- The Days of Our Lives
- Wood Work
- Bath-tub––scene of a struggle
- These Past Few Years
- It's Foggy
- Some People Don't Like to Talk
- In White-Tiled Brightness
- We Sat on the Street
- Summertime Window
- Green Tree, Red Fruit
- A Loud Noise
- A Phone Call from Dalian
- The Worker's Hand
- The Chicken-seller
- The Train
- Let Me Describe the Rainstorm
- Making a Note
Short story (39)
- Family Secrets
- Pain
- Head
- The Leftie Sickle
- Our Bones
- I Love My Mum
- The Hint
- Kidney Tonic
- The Man With the Knife
- Going to Heaven
- Throwing Out the Baby
- Brand New World (with Helen Wang)
- The Shades who Periscope Through Flowers to the Sky
- The Stone Ox That Grazed
- A Street in the Wind
- The Traveling Family
- Blessed Bodies
- Black Cat City
- January: Bridges
- Eternal Lamb
- Free!
- Who Stole the Romanian's Wallet? (with Yvette Zhu)
- That Damned Thing She Said
- Zeus
- 1923 - A Fantasy (with Pang Zhaoxia)
- The Seventies: Fragments of Memories
- This Moron is Dead
- A Gift from Bill Gates
- Philosophy in the Boudoir
- Apery
- Backflow River
- Goodbye, An
- The Cry of the Deer
- Snow (with Natascha Bruce)
- Dad Your Name is Field-Keeper
- One Night on the Wharf
- Sissy Zhong
- The Amorous Centaur's Gentlemen's Club
- Old Man Xinjiang
Novella (1)
Novel (15)
- Flight of the Bumblebee
- The Chilli Bean Paste Clan
- White Horse
- Qin Opera (with Dylan Levi King)
- Broken Wings
- The Flowers of War
- I Want to To Be Good
- Crystal Wedding
- The unbearable dreamworld of Champa the driver
- Dinner for Six (with Helen Wang)
- Happy
- Gold Mountain Blues
- Message from an Unknown Chinese Mother: Stories of Loss and Love
- Banished!
- K: The Art of Love (with Henry Y.H. Zhao)
Essay (3)
Non-fiction (2)
Graphic novel (1)
Excerpt (3)
The Paper Republic database exists for reference purposes only. We are not the publisher of these works, are not responsible for their contents, and cannot provide digital or paper copies.
Posts
Guardian newspaper chooses contemporary Chinese poem as Poem of the Week
By Nicky Harman, April 17, '12
Following the five Chinese short stories in translation which the Guardian ran last week, they've chosen a poem by Han Dong as their Poem of the Week today.
Guardian newspaper runs 5 new Chinese short stories
By Nicky Harman, April 10, '12
It begins here and - yes - the blurb says it: The London Book Fair welcomes the world's biggest publisher by volume this month, with China selected as the 2012 Market Focus. The Guardian's China stories series presents new English translations of short stories from the most exciting writers working in China today.
I was slightly amazed that the whole project was quite so long and involved. (It was indeed before Christmas when we started it.) There are always niggles, like we only managed one female writer - though she is a cracker - but all in all, it was a swift learning curve and a warm glow of satisfaction is stealing over me.
Interview with Han Dong et al
By Nicky Harman, April 10, '12
Chitralekha Basu has done an extended interview with Han Dong, Nicky Harman and Ra Page (Comma Press) for China Daily, pre-London Bookfair. Read it here.
PS Chitralekha has asked me to make her full, uncut piece (pace CN editors) available, so here it is
Two Chinese children's books just out in English
By Nicky Harman, April 2, '12
I was asked by the publishers to review these books for dimsum. All in all, it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience: both reading the books and writing nice things about them and about the translators! Click here to read the review.
Xu Zechen in Words Without Borders April issue
By Nicky Harman, April 2, '12
Xu Zechen's Throwing out the baby translated by Nicky Harman appears in the Words Without Borders April 2012 issue. Enjoy!
The real fiction about Foxconn
By Nicky Harman, March 25, '12
Real facts about Apple’s supplier Foxconn are in short supply (in spite of the best efforts of Mike Daisey and This American Life) since both Chinese and Western reporters are kept out. So perhaps it’s time for fiction to open the factory gates and give us an imaginative look inside. Chinese novelist and poet, Han Dong, was commissioned to write something for the inaugural issue of GQ (China) Magazine in 2010. In response by the first spate of Foxconn suicides, he wrote this tongue-in-cheek fairy-tale/love story. It's all here: the monotonous hard work, the rule-bound life, the manipulative reporter, the profit-driven bosses and their sycophantic sidekicks....
Free Word Centre - new Translation Programme
By Nicky Harman, March 22, '12
The Free Word Centre, London, now has a whole section devoted to translation: its Translation Programme. This has partly arisen out of the Translator Residencies last autumn, of which I had one, but there's now lots more going on. Keep an eye on it!
English PEN, 29 March 2012, China Inside Out - final programme
By Nicky Harman, March 3, '12
We've got a fantastic selection of authors, artists and activities. Come - and bring your friends! Programme and booking details are here:
China Inside Day 29 March looking for UK-based reading group to read Chinese fiction
By Nicky Harman, February 20, '12
If you're interested in joining this one-off reading group (and getting free books [in English] by Chinese writers!) please contact Harpreet direct: Harpreet says: "As part of PEN’s China Inside Out day, we’re recruiting readers to read books by authors that are taking part in the day’s programme. We have sets of books by Kerry Young, Diane Wei Lang and Ma Jian (possibly also Zhang Ling) to give away to reading groups as well as free tickets to the author event, held at the Free Word centre on March 29. If you would like to take part in this reading group offer and join us for a brilliant day of events please email me (Harpreet.purewal@readingagency.org.uk) for more information."
Calling C>E translators who'll be in the UK for the London Bookfair 16th - 18th April
By Nicky Harman, January 18, '12
Danny Hahn from the UK Translators Association would like to organise an informal get-together for practising Chinese-to-English translators in or around the bookfair. Please contact him direct: d.hahn@uea.ac.uk.
Translation Summer School 2012 in London for native English-speakers
By Nicky Harman, January 18, '12
Following the great success of last year’s Summer School, we are delighted to announce the expanded Summer School 2012. This five-day event will take place at Birkbeck University of London (43 Gordon Square WC1H 0PD) on 9-13 July 2012. It comprises courses in translation into English from Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish – each language subject to a minimum group-size of five students – and an editing skills course for all. There will also be games, a competition, meet-the-publishers, and guest lectures and workshops.
Here’s a novel way to get your favourite translated short story out there – podcasts
By Nicky Harman, January 16, '12
At the Free Word Translator Residency we ran a BookclubFest where I was approached by Steve Wasserman of the Short Story Bookclub asking for a Han Dong story. The long and the short of it is that I provided The Deer Park and he recorded it. I was over the moon when I listened, and I love the picture he provided too. The story seems to acquire a whole new life of its own as it’s being read alive. This particular website provides all sorts of podcast stories for free (NB he doesn’t pay the writer/translator). There’s at least one other UK–based site I know of that does something similar. I very much like the idea, as a great alternative to printed short story collections.
Are we kidding ourselves we even understand works in translation? Is great national literature universal because it is great, or great because it is universal? Another Free Word Centre event, London
By Nicky Harman, October 15, '11
The New International? Literature in an age of ‘globish’, talk on Thursday 20 October 2011, 7.00pm until 9.00pm, Free Word Centre, 60 Farringdon Road, London EC1R 3GA. For details see here. Not strictly Chinese-focussed and nothing to do with me, but I promised I'd pass the news on. It sounds very interesting.
So you think you can make translation sexy?
By Nicky Harman, October 14, '11
So I’ve had to dream up a series of Free Word Centre talks for a non-specialist, non-translator audience, which are China/translation-focussed. Why not ask myself? It seemed like a great idea at first. I could hardly refuse…. So I did: “Nicky, will you give a talk on ‘3,000 years of Chinese translation’? “Yes Nicky, I will, no problem.”