Chinese Author Mo Yan Wins Nobel Prize

On Thursday, October 11, the Swedish Academy announced Chinese author Mo Yan as this year’s winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature [1].

“Through a mixture of fantasy and reality, historical and social perspectives, Mo Yan has created a world reminiscent in its complexity of those in the writings of William Faulkner and Gabriel García Márquez, at the same time finding a departure point in old Chinese literature and in oral tradition,” the Academy said. [2] “In addition to his novels, Mo Yan has published many short stories and essays on various topics, and despite his social criticism is seen in his homeland as one of the foremost contemporary authors.”

Mo Yan is a pseudonym for Guan Moye, who was born in 1955 and grew up in Gaomi in Shandong province in northeastern China.

The bibliography of his works in English (below) lists several titles published in the U.S., including Red Sorghum (1993) and The Garlic Ballads (1995) from Viking, and four titles published between 2000 and 2008 by Arcade Publishing, now an imprint of Skyhorse Publishing. Forthcoming is Sandalwood Death from the University of Oklahoma Press in 2013.

Publishers Lunch [3] reported today that Penguin is going back to press for an initial 15,000 copies of Red Sorghum.

 Swedish Academy Bibliography of Mo Yan’s Works in English

Explosions and Other Stories / edited by Janice Wickeri. – Hong Kong : Research Centre for Translations, Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1991

Red Sorghum : A Novel of China / translated from the Chinese by Howard Goldblatt. – New York : Viking, 1993. – Translation of Hong gaoliang jiazu

The Garlic Ballads :A Novel / translated from the Chinese by Howard Goldblatt. – New York : Viking, 1995. – Translation of Tiantang suantai zhi ge

The Republic of Wine / translated from the Chinese by Howard Goldblatt. – New York : Arcade Pub., 2000. – Translation of Jiuguo

Shifu, You’ll Do Anything for a Laugh / translated from the Chinese by Howard Goldblatt. – New York : Arcade Pub., 2001. – Translation of Shifu yuelai yue youmo

Big Breasts and Wide Hips : A Novel / translated from the Chinese by Howard Goldblatt. – New York : Arcade Pub., 2004. – Translation of Fengru feitun

Life and Death are Wearing Me Out :A Novel / translated from the Chinese by Howard Goldblatt. – New York : Arcade Pub., 2008. – Translation of Shengsi pilao

Change / translated by Howard Goldblatt. – London : Seagull, 2010. – Translation of Bian

Pow / translated by Howard Goldblatt. – London : Seagull, 2013

Sandalwood Death / translated by Howard Goldblatt. – Norman : Univ. of Oklahoma Press, 2013. – Translation of Tanxiangxing

Selected Stories by Mo Yan / translated by Howard Goldblatt. – Hong Kong : The Chinese University Press,
20-?. – (Announced but not yet published)