November 1, 2018—The American Literary Translators Association (ALTA) is delighted to announce the winner of the 2018 Lucien Stryk Asian Translation Prize. Lucien Stryk was an internationally acclaimed translator of Japanese and Chinese Zen poetry, renowned Zen poet himself, and former professor of English at Northern Illinois University. The Lucien Stryk Asian Translation Prize recognizes the importance of Asian translation for international literature and promotes the translation of Asian works into English. This year’s judges are Robert Hueckstedt, Juliet Winters Carpenter, and Sora Kim-Russell.

Winner: 2018 Lucien Stryk Asian Translation Prize

Notes of a Crocodile
By Qiu Miaojin
Translated from the Chinese by Bonnie Huie
(New York Review Books)

Notes of a Crocodile by Qiu Miaojin, first published in Taiwan in 1994, is a queer novel in both senses of the adjective. It tells the story of a “woman who loves women,” while also queering the conventions of the novel to chart a non-linear, non-binary, playfully fragmented, and multi-genre course of its own. Translator Bonnie Huie deftly navigates Qui’s stylistic twists and turn, artfully balancing ontological philosophy against the diction and hijinks of a group of college-aged misfits chafing against social expectations. While fundamentally a story about misfits—crocodiles who “adopted a homemade ‘human suit’ before running away from home”—it is a perfect fit and an overdue addition to the ever-growing body of queer literature from around the world.

 

Submissions for the 2019 Lucien Stryk Prize will be accepted starting in January 2019.
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