Nicky Harman is a UK-based literary translator, working from Chinese to English and focussing on contemporary fiction, literary non-fiction, and occasionally poetry, by a wide variety of authors. When not translating, she spends time promoting contemporary Chinese fiction to English-language readers. She volunteers for , a non-profit registered in the UK, where she is also a trustee. She writes blogs (for instance ), give talks and lectures, and takes part in literary events and festivals, especially with the . She also mentors new translators, teaches summer schools (Norwich, London, Warwick and Bristol), and judges translation competitions. She tweets, with Helen Wang, as the China Fiction Bookclub @cfbcuk.

She taught on the MSc in Translation at Imperial College until 2011 and was co-chair of the Translators Association (Society of Authors) 2014–2017.

Life and career

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

Awards and honors

  • Winner of a Special Book Award of China in 2020[citation needed]
  • Shortlisted for the 2021 Newman Prize for Chinese Literature, for her co-translation with Natascha Bruce of Xu Xiaobin's work.
  • Longlisted for the FT/Oppenheimer Funds Emerging Voices Awards 2016, with Xu Xiaobin's Crystal Wedding.
  • Winner of the Mao Tai Cup People's Literature Chinese-English translation prize 2015. Link here: [in Chinese]
  • Longlisted for the 2015 Best Translated Book Award Fiction BTBA Longlist, with Dorothy Tse's Snow and Shadow.
  • 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》)
  • 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.

Translations

A list of her published translations can be found on her .

External links