Nicky Harman

Harman studied Chinese at the University of Leeds, and first went to China in 1974.[1]

She taught on the MSc in Translation at Imperial College London until 2011, and has been a full-time literary translator since then. She focuses on fiction, poetry and occasionally literary non-fiction, by authors such as Chen Xiwo, Han Dong, Hong Ying, Jia Pingwa, Dorothy Tse, Xinran, Yan Geling and Zhang Ling. She has been a contributor to the literary magazines Chutzpah, and Words Without Borders, and also organizes translation-focused events, mentors new translators and was one of the judges for the Harvill Secker Young Translators Prize 2012, and for the Bai Meigui Translation Prize (White Rose) for Chinese-English Translation, 2015 and 2016. She is also a contributor to the website Paper Republic,[2] and founded the China Fiction Book Club in 2010.[3] She is currently Co-Chair of the Translators' Association of the Society of Authors.[4] She is an active member of the not-for-profit website Paper Republic [5] and contributes to the series of translated short stories and essays called READ PAPER REPUBLIC.[6] She blogs regularly on Asian Books Blog and occasionally elsewhere.

• Longlisted for the FT/Oppenheimer Funds Emerging Voices Awards 2016, with Xu Xiaobin's Crystal Wedding.[7]
• Winner of the Mao Tai Cup People's Literature Chinese-English translation prize 2015. Link here: [in Chinese][8]
• Longlisted for the 2015 Best Translated Book Award Fiction BTBA Longlist, with Dorothy Tse's Snow and Shadow.[9]
• Winner of first prize in the 2013 China International Translation Contest, Chinese-to-English section, with Jia Pingwa’s "Backflow River" (贾平凹: 《倒流河》)[10][11]
• Won a PEN Translation Fund Award (2006) for her translation of Banished! by Han Dong, which was subsequently long-listed for the Man Asian Literary Prize 2008.[12]

A list of her published translations can be found on her Paper Republic homepage.

• Nicky Harman profile at The Guardian
• Nicky Harman profile at English PEN
• Nicky Harman profile at Paper Republic
• Nicky Harman profile at Free Word Centre
• China Fiction Book Club