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Ken Liu, Writer

Author of The Grace of Kings and The Paper Menagerie

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translations

Waste Tide

May 1, 2019 by Ken

My friend Chen Qiufan’s debut novel, Waste Tide, is finally out in English. I did the translation, and Tor Books in the US and Head of Zeus in the UK are the publishers.

Waste Tide Covers

The novel has been getting excellent reviews everywhere. You can see a sample of the reviews and find out more about the book here.

Stan and me in front of MOCA

Stan (that’s his English name) and I attended a book launch for him at the Museum of Chinese in America in NYC on Tuesday, organized by Professor Jing Tsu of Yale. Very grateful to the staff of MOCA, Professor Tsu, Lindsey Hall (Stan’s editor at Tor), Desirae Friesen (Stan’s publicist), Eddie Schneider and Gray Tan (Stan’s agents), Russel Galen (my agent), Neil Clarke, Regina Kanyu Wang, Emily Jin, and others who made the English edition possible and the night so memorable.

Big congrats to Stan! (And buy the book!)

Filed Under: writing Tagged With: scifi, translations

Broken Stars

March 15, 2019 by Ken

The second anthology of translated contemporary Chinese SF, Broken Stars, is out from Tor Books (US) and Head of Zeus (UK).

Broken stars cover

I hope you enjoy the work of these amazing authors and translators.

Filed Under: writing Tagged With: scifi, translations

The Translator’s Role

January 3, 2016 by Ken

This is one of the finest explanations of a translator’s role I’ve ever read. Click on the image for a zoomed-in view. (Richard Howard’s note to The Little Prince.)

Richard Howard

Filed Under: reading Tagged With: translations

Xia Jia Wins an Honorable Mention in SFF Translation Awards

August 24, 2013 by Ken

“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”.

Filed Under: writing Tagged With: scifi, translations

Three-Body is Coming to America

July 26, 2013 by Ken

Tor Books just made the announcement.

It was a lot of work, and it’s going to be a lot more work still. But wow. Happiness.

Filed Under: writing Tagged With: scifi, translations

SANTI

November 7, 2012 by Ken

It’s true. I’ll be translating Volume One of Liu Cixin’s grand sci-fi trilogy γ€ŠδΈ‰δ½“γ€‹(SANTI — official title TBD) into English. Volume Two and Three will be translated by famed translators Joel Martinsen and Eric Abrahamsen.

Now, the time frame they’ve given me is aggressive, to say the least. I won’t have much bandwidth for anything else for a few months. I’m really excited by the opportunity to introduce one of China’s greatest sci-fi novelists to the West, and hopefully the sacrifices I make now will be worth it.

Filed Under: writing Tagged With: scifi, translations

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