Ken

Just finished reading an incredible new story from Chen Qiufan. I can’t wait till the market it’s meant for purchases it so that I get to translate it. (He’s got two stories that I’d love to translate right now. I just have to find the time…)

It’s awards season, and I want to know what stories I should be nominating.

I didn’t read nearly enough in 2011, and I want to remedy that. So please tell me what you wrote in 2011 that you were proud of, what really got your attention, what you think I ought to read. I’ll try to keep a list here.

So far, these are the ones that I liked and would recommend:

• “The Cartographer Wasps and the Anarchist Bees”, by E. Lily Yu, at Clarkesworld (April). A complex, beautiful political fable with a sting as sharp as those of the titular insects. Picked up by two of the Year’s Best anthologies. Easy to see why.

• “Her Husband’s Hands”, by Adam-Troy Castro, at Lightspeed (October). I loved Castro’s Arvies from last year, and this one was just as good. A moving story about love, even in pieces.

• “The Fish of Lijiang”, by Chen Qiufan, at Clarkesworld (August). I translated this story into English, so I’m somewhat biased. But Chen is one of the most talented writers I know, and I wish I managed to convey some of the beauty of his words in my translation.

I’ll add to this list as I read more in the coming weeks. So let me know what I should be reading! Thank you.

P.S., to see the updated list of recommendations, go here.

Clarkesworld’s January issue has a beautiful, powerful piece by Aliette de Bodard that I strongly recommend: “Scattered Along the River of Heaven.”

This is a political story. It deals with many themes that I think about often: de-colonization, exile, revolutions, the importance of memory and history, whether the oppressed must turn into oppressors in the struggle for freedom, the luxury of privileged and powerful peoples to suddenly appear magnanimous only when they’ve lost.

But much of the power of this story comes from its quiet, restrained tone. The Chinese/Vietnamese-inspired poems and milieu work well here, and the three generations of women at the center of the story form a moving emotional core.

I suspect that every reader will read this and get a different “message” out of it, as should be the case with the best kind of fiction.

As for me, the character I admire the most is Mingxia. I believe that she made the hardest, rarest choice of all.