Nicky Harman
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, give talks and lectures, and takes part in literary events and festivals, especially with the . She also mentors new translators, teaches summer schools, 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 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
- 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:
- 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"
- Won a PEN Translation Fund Award for her translation of Banished! by Han Dong, which was subsequently long-listed for the Man Asian Literary Prize 2008.
Translations