The first 2.5 months of 2022 has been such a wild rollercoaster ride. I have a ton of updates and news on my writing and translation work.
The Lantern and the Night Moths
My chapbook The Lantern and the Night Moths / 灯与夜蛾 won Collusion Books’ inaugural Tafseer Chapbook Prize for chapbook-length manuscripts of poetry translated into English by BIPOC & racialized translators.
The chapbook includes my translations of poems written by five modern and contemporary Chinese poets. It gives you an overview of my interests as a translator and my work over the past two years.
It’s forthcoming with Collusion Books in October 2022, with pre-orders open in September.
I want to thank Andy, the publisher of Collusion Books, for believing in my chapbook and look forward to working with him.
Thank you very much as well to Khashayar Mohammadi, Tafseer editor, for his judge’s citation:
“What struck me first about Yilin Wang’s The Lantern and the Night Moths / 灯与夜蛾 was the greatness of the poet: their translations feel effortless, as if translation were simply a method of producing great poetry. With respect for the agency of the five Chinese poets they translate, only a great poet can translate poetry this well, hitting emotional marks through a masterful exploration of space, style, and substance—balancing intricate knowledge of the source language with creative probing of the target language, creating poetry that feels utterly unmitigated and urgent but also demonstrates, on closer examination by even an untrained eye, a rigorous process. Showcasing translators like Yilin Wang is exactly why the Tafseer Prize was created.”
Thank you to everyone who has supported my translation work over the years. I’ll share more news about the chapbook once I have updates!
Original Fiction and Poetry Publications
My short story “The Silence of Farewells” has been selected for the anthology Asian Ghost Short Stories (Flame Tree Publishing), which will be released on April 12, 2022 in the UK.
I also have a poem, “A Sichuan Diaspora Daughter’s Kitchen,” which was longlisted for the CBC Poetry Prize, in the newest issue of The Puritan. Please make sure to listen to my recorded reading of the poem, which combines English, Sichuanese, and Mandarin Chinese.
Foster Poetry Prize & Rhysling Award Nomination
It still feels so surreal to write this, but my poem “Moving, Again” won the 2022 Foster Poetry Prize judged by Jonina Kirton, and will be forthcoming in a future issue of CV2. I’m so honored and delighted for the piece to be chosen, given especially how personal the piece is. See this thread for the announcement and my statement about my decision to donate the prize money to the Unist’ot’en camp.
We’re thrilled to announce the winner and honourable mentions for the 2021 Foster Poetry Prize, as selected by @JoninaKirton!
We were also incredibly moved to learn that winner @yilinwriter has decided to donate her $1000 in prize money to @UnistotenCamp. Read on to learn more💛 pic.twitter.com/jOY4GP4tTq
— Contemporary Verse 2 (@CV2magazine) February 8, 2022
Also, my poem “The Reality of Ghosts,” which appeared in Fantasy Magazine last year, has been nominated for a Rhysling Award (short poem category). It will be appearing in the 2022 Rhysling anthology. A huge shout-out to whoever nominated this poem – thank you so much!
More Translations of Chinese Fiction and Poetry
A while back I translated two short stories, Gu Shi’s “To Procure Jade” and Ling Chen’s “The Name of the Dragon,” for the new Tor anthology The Way Spring Arrives and Other Stories. I also wrote a short essay for the anthology on my approach to translating the stories. Please considering checking out the book if you’re interested in Chinese SFF in translation!
The February 2022 issue of POETRY Magazine also features 2 poems that I translated: Xiao Xi’s “the car is backing up, please pay attention” and Fei Ming’s “the soaring dust of the mortal realm“. Fei Ming is one of my favourite Chinese modern poets, and I’m so excited to be able to share more of his poetry with readers in English.
I also recently signed contracts with the literary journals Guernica, Room, and The Common to publish more poems that I translated. Please keep an eye out for the translations in the coming months!
