Ouyang Yu, latest biog, updated 13/3/2025

By Ouyang Yu

 Ouyang Yu has published 150 books of poetry, fiction, non-fiction, literary translation and literary criticism in the English and Chinese languages. His noted books include his award-winning novels, The Eastern Slope Chronicle (2002) and The English Class (2010); his collections of poetry, Moon over Melbourne and Other Poems (1995, a new UK edition 2005),Songs of the Last Chinese Poet (1997), New and Selected Poems (UK, 2004) and The Kingsbury Tales: A Complete Collection (2012); his translations in Chinese, of The Female Eunuch (China, 1991, new editions in 2002 and 2011), The Ancestor Game (Taiwan, 1996), The Man Who Loved Children (China, 1998, a new edition in 2014), The Shock of the New (China, 2003, a new edition in 2019), The Fatal Shore (China, 2014, and a new edition in 2024) Nothing if not Critical (China, 2016) When Seething Night is Left upon the Flowers（《当沸腾的夜留在了花上》）, a collection of poems by the English peasant poet John Clare (China, 2024); his book of literary criticism, such as Chinese in Australian Fiction: 1888-1988 (2008), and his history book in Chinese, A History of Literary Exchange between Australia and China(Showwe Publishing, Taiwan, 2016).

 

Ouyang’s poetry has been included in the Best Australian Poetry collections for 12 times from 2004 to 2024, and has been included in some of the major Australian collections, such as The Penguin Anthology of Australian Poetry (2009), and The Macquarie PEN Anthology of Australian Literature (2010) as well as The Turnrow Anthology of Contemporary Australian Poetry (2014).

 

In 2003, his first novel, The Eastern Slope Chronicle, shortlisted for NSW Premier’s Literary Award, won the SA Arts Award for Innovation in Fiction in 2004.

 

In 2010, his second novel, The English Class (Transit Lounge), was named one of the Best Books of 2010 in Australian Book Review and The Age as well as the Sydney Morning Herald. The novel has since won the Community Relations Award in the 2011 NSW Premier’s Literature Award, while being short-listed for Christina Stead Fiction Award in the 2011 NSW Premier’s Literature Award, the 2010 Western Australia Premier’s Literature Award, the 2011 Queensland Premier’s Literature Award and the Melbourne Prize (in 2012). His third English novel, Loose: A Wild History, supported with a grant by Creative Victoria in 2000 and released in August 2011 by Wakefield Press, forms the Yellow Town Trilogy, together with his first, The Eastern Slope Chronicle, and his second, The English Class.

 

When Loose: A Wild History was published, one Australian critic said she would recommend Ouyang Yu as one of the three nominees for the Nobel Prize in Literature, ［‘This is because I think that (along with Brian Castro and Gerald Murnane) Yu is a possible candidate for a Nobel Prize in Literature’: http://anzlitlovers.com/2011/12/18/loose-by-ouyang-yu/ ］She still holds that review as she said, 13 years after, on 18/7/2024, that 'There are three authors who I think merit the Nobel Prize: Gerald Murnane, Ouyang Yu, and Brian Castro.' [https://anzlitlovers.com/2024/07/18/all-the-rivers-run-south-2023-by-ouyang-yu/ ]

 

Ouyang Yu was nominated one of the Top 100 Most Influential Melbournians for the year 2011 as well as the Top 10 most influential writers of Chinese origin in the Chinese diaspora. His book of bilingual poetry, Self Translation (Transit Lounge, 2012), was short-listed for NSW Premier’s Translation Award in 2013. He was a finalist for the Best Writing Award in Melbourne Prize for Literature in 2012. In July 2014, The Fatal Shore that he translated into Chinese won Book Award for Translation, awarded by the Australia-China Council, and, in 2016, he won a special award from Australia-China Council for his contribution to Australian Studies in China between 2000 and 2016, for ‘his contributions to Australian Studies in China through major translations and original works of scholarship.

 

His translation in English of Chinese poetry, titled, Breaking New Sky: Contemporary Poetry from China, was shortlisted for the Multicultural NSW Early Career Translator Prize in 2015. His poetry book, Fainting with Freedom, was shortlisted for the NSW Premier’s Award in 2016.

 

He was professor of English at Wuhan University in China (2005-2008), and the ‘Siyuan Scholar’ and professor of English at Shanghai University of International Business and Economics, China, from late 2012 to mid-2019.

 

By the end of 2022, his English translation of 15 Chinese poets in 15 books had been published by Puncher & Wattmann. [The list available on request]

 

He was twice nominated one of the top ten poets in China for 2018 and 2019, selected by the Xiron Poetry Club in Beijing.

 

On 28 November 2020, it was announced by ACAA, Australia China Alumni Association, that he had won the honour of the Alumni of the Year in 2020.

 

Ouyang’s work has been translated into Danish, Swedish, Polish, Spanish, Russian, Kazakh, Vietnamese and Catalan.

 

His book of poetry, Terminally Poetic (2020), won the Judith Wright Calanthe Award for a Poetry Collection in the 2021 Queensland Literary Awards. He was also a finalist for the Melbourne Prize in 2021 and he won the Fellowship awarded by the Australia Council for the Arts in late 2021.

 

His eighth novel, All the Rivers Run South, was published in December 2023 with Puncher & Wattmann, which is also publishing his ninth novel, The Sun at Eight or Nine in late 2024, and his first collection of short stories, The White Cockatoo Flowers, is published in early 2024 with Transit Lounge Publishing.

 

Ouyang’s poetry in English self-translation has attracted critical attention from international critics, such as Associate Professor Simone Gallo in Italy whose article is found here:

 

https://publications-prairial.fr/marge/index.php?id=531

 

His website: www.huangzhouren.com

His bilingual blog: youyang2.blogspot.com

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