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April/ May 2017: Stand Magazine Special Issue

We have something a little bit different for our book club this April and May. Rather than just one author, we have a whole magazine full of stories, poems, interviews, calligraphy and more!

We're honoured to have been asked to guest-edit this special issue of Stand, on the theme of 'Chinese Journeys'.

The magazine has a long and distinguished history:

Stand has been a fixture on the British and world literary scene since 1952, when the first issue appeared in London. It moved to Leeds in 1960, then to Newcastle, and it is now edited from the School of English at the University of Leeds in collaboration with Virginia Commonwealth University in the USA.

In the issue we have fiction, poetry and non-fiction by some of the writers, translators, publishers and academics who we’ve worked with already on the Writing Chinese project, as well as other writers from the mainland, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. We’re also delighted to be publishing the winners of our latest translation competitions. Luisetta Mudie, who won our reportage competition, is featured, with her translation of Li Jingrui's (李静睿) 'One Day, One of the Screws Will Come Loose'. And we also have the overall winners of our poetry competition - Helen Tat and Jia Liu, as well as the other winning entries.

You can read the issue online here. This issue is free to read due to the generous support of Dr Humphrey Ko, of the University of Hong Kong (and a past colleague from the University of Leeds). And please do think about supporting the wonderful work of Stand by taking out a subscription!

Our launch event is on May 26th. Please see our Events page for more details, and how to register. All welcome!

Here's the blurb for the issue, to whet your appetites:

A special issue from the Writing Chinese project on new Chinese writing and its English translation. Poems, short stories, reportage and critical commentary all exploring ‘journeys’ from the Chinese-speaking world to the West, and back again – with contributions from writers based in the UK with China connections (including TS Eliot prize winner Sarah Howe), writers hailing from the People’s Republic of China (including the controversial novelist and critic Murong Xuecun and the novelist and short story writer Yan Ge), from Singapore (the  writer, director and translator Jeremy Tiang), Hong Kong (the surrealist writer and editor Dorothy Tse and poet and translator Tammy Ho) and Taiwan (the up-and-coming essayist and writer Wu I-Wei). Other highlights include the winning entries from the Writing Chinese translation competitions, on poetry and reportage, and a response by Helen Mort to the poems of celebrated PRC poet Wang Xiaoni. Interspersed with the creative pieces are extensive interviews with translators, critics, publishers and other key players in the varied and often circuitous journeys of new writing between Greater China and the English-speaking world.

And thank you to Ruihua Zhang, for providing our beautiful cover illustration.