Ken Liu, Writer

Author of The Grace of Kings and The Paper Menagerie

writing

Xia Jia Wins an Honorable Mention in SFF Translation Awards

by

“A Hundred Ghosts Parade Tonight,” by my friend Xia Jia, and translated by me, has won an Honorable Mention in the 2013 Science Fiction and Fantasy Translation Awards!

I loved this story, and it’s great to see Xia Jia getting some recognition. I think she’s one of the best contemporary Chinese speculative fiction writers. I’m proud to have had a chance to work with her.

She’s also a skilled translator on her own, having translated my “The Man Who Ended History” into Chinese. I think her translation is superior to my own original in many ways. She’ll also have a story in Neil Clarke’s upcoming Upgraded cyborg anthology. (The story is amazing, and I cried while translating it.)

I also talked about translating Xia Jia’s story for Clarkesworld: “Gathered in Translation”.

Mono no aware in Emoji

by

The super talented Oliver Buckram, a regular contributor to F&SF whose stories are funny, delightful, and full of wit, has just made my day by translating “Mono no aware” into Emoji (and you know how I love Emoji translations).

You should also ask him for his Emoji translation of Kij Johnson’s “Spar.”

Readercon

by

I’ll be at Readercon this year in Burlington, Massachusetts, on Saturday and Sunday (July 13 and 14).

Programming on Saturday:

  • 11:00 AM The Art of Critique. Jeanne Cavelos, Ellen Datlow, Matthew Kressel (leader), Ken Liu, Eugene Mirabelli, Betsy Mitchell. Criticism is a large part of a writer’s life. What are the elements of a good short story or novel critique? How does one go about critiquing another writer’s work? What are the most effective techniques? What types of things do we look for? Is there such a thing as destructive criticism or are all kinds of critique helpful? How does a writer learn what to listen to from a critique and what to ignore? We will explore these and other questions.

  • 1:00 PM Kaffeeklatsch. I’m scheduled against Maureen F. McHugh, which means I’ll probably be having coffee by myself.

Hope to see some of you there!

The Hugos

by

I’m speechless: “Mono no aware” has been nominated for a Hugo in the Short Story category (along with Aliette de Bodard’s “Immersion” and Kij Johnson’s “Mantis Wives” — and Aliette is also nominated for her novella, “On a Red Station, Drifting”).

Thank you, everyone who nominated me. You’ve made me so happy and I’m very grateful.

(Full list of nominees here).

I’m really, really proud to be listed with Aliette and Kij, congrats to them both and good luck!

My heartiest congratulations to all the nominees — many of whom are friends and writers/artists/editors I admire. Good luck to all of you!

Nebula Nominations

by

I’ve been ill this last week, so this post is a bit delayed.

I’m delighted to see the list of nominees for the Nebulas. Lots of deserving friends on there: Helena, Aliette, Jay, Rachel, Leah, Cat, Tina, Tom … Many of these stories I loved and nominated, and I’m so glad to see others shared my judgment.

And of course I’m utterly floored to see my own fiction on the list too. Thank you very, very much. Here they are:

The Veiled Shanghai

by

I have a story coming out in an anthology of speculative fiction inspired by Oz: Oz Reimagined: New Tales from the Emerald City and Beyond, edited by John Joseph Adams and Douglas Cohen. You can pre-order the anthology from Amazon here.

The anthology features work from Theodora Goss, Kat Howard, Seanan McGuire, Rachel Swirsky, Robin Wasserman, and Jane Yolen, among others. I’m really proud to be in such company.

Even better, each of the stories from the anthology will be available as a Kindle single, and the talented and amazing Galen Dara has provided an illustration/cover for each. The cover for my contribution, “The Veiled Shanghai,” is lovely:

And you can pre-order the single here.

“The Veiled Shanghai” is a steampunk fantasy set at the time of the May Fourth Movement in colonial Shanghai. Dorothy and her ragtag team must find the Great Oz, save a revolution, and defeat the Wicked Warlord of the West.

The May Fourth Movement defined much of what it means to be “Chinese” in the modern era (culture, language, the legacy of colonialism, the struggle for freedom, etc.). Almost a century later, I still feel a keen sense of connection to those men and women because the revolution in many ways continues to this day.

This story is, in a sense, written to honor them.

It’s surprising to me that many in the west do not understand the complicated feelings that the Chinese had (and still do) about the colonial legacy of places like Shanghai and Hong Kong. Some readers of the story expressed surprise at the (apparently) conflicted feelings that my Chinese characters show towards their status as colonial subjects.

I suppose the colonial experience, intuitive to me, is not so intuitive to many who have never lived in a society shaped by it. It’s not a simple matter of being “anti-West” when one is opposed to being colonized. Indeed, the May Fourth movement was very much a “pro-West” movement while also being an anti-colonial movement.

I suppose that’s also why stories like this one are important to me, for I hope through them I can capture some sense of that complexity in our experience as historical subjects.

Oh, I’m also going to be doing a reading of this story for the New York Review of Science Fiction with Jim Freund. It will be on March 6, 7:00 PM, at the Soho Gallery for Digital Art. More info here. Robin Wasserman will also be reading her story. Hope to see you there!