Floral Mutter by Ya Shi, tr. Nick Admussen Available now from Zephyr Press (order here) In Asia: order from the (CUHK Press)
Ya Shi 哑石 is a poet from China's Sichuan province. Endlessly inventive and intellectually restless, his work sings as it struggles, bringing a great deal of joy without flinching in the face of mortality, isolation, and suppression. Ya Shi is the author of six collections of poetry and winner of the elite Liu Li'an Prize. He is a university lecturer in mathematics; his newest poetry is available on his blog (in Chinese) here.
The Chinese University of Hong Kong Press has generously made the translator's introduction free to read: you can find it here. To read an interview with me about Ya Shi in the New England Review, click here; to read his work, click on the magazine covers below.
The translation journal Asymptote published several poems of Ya Shi's, including "Fragment," which provided the title of Floral Mutter.
Two Ya Shi poems were published at Eleven Eleven magazine, and his poem "Untitled" was nominated for a Best of the Net award.
Chinese Literature Today published a feature on Ya Shi that included an introduction and four of his experimental prose pieces.
The newly redesigned Two Lines magazine printed four Ya Shi poems in its paper edition, and two online.
Some Anthologized Translations
"The Old Tunes Are Finished," "The Evolution of Men," and "On The 'Third Type of Person,'" three essays by Lu Xun in Jottings Under Lamplight, edited by Kirk Denton and Eileen Cheng. Liz Carter generously reviewed the collection, including my translations, here.
An essay, "The Erotic Carnival in Recent Chinese History," and three poems by Nobel Peace Laureate Liu Xiaobo 刘晓波, in No Enemies, No Hatred, edited by Perry Link.
Two poems by Beijing University professor Zang Di 臧棣 in The Third Shore, edited by W. N. Herbert and Yang Lian.
"Retracing Your Steps," a brilliantly odd short story by Zhu Yue, in Chutzpah! New Voices from China, edited by Austin Woerner.