Skip to main content
Outdated Browser

For the best experience using our website, we recommend upgrading your browser to a newer version or switching to a supported browser.

More Information

Contributor

Nicky Harman

Contributor

Nicky Harman

Nicky Harman is a UK-based prize-winning literary translator, working from Chinese to English and focusing on contemporary fiction, literary nonfiction, 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 Paper Republic, a nonprofit registered in the UK, where she is also a trustee. She writes blogs (for instance, the Asian Books Blog), gives talks and lectures, and takes part in literary events and festivals, especially with the Leeds Centre for New Chinese Writing. She also mentors new translators, teaches summer schools (Norwich, London, Warwick, and Bristol), 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 (Society of Authors) 2014–2017.

Articles by Nicky Harman

Sexism and Science Fiction: An Interview with Tang Fei
By Nicky Harman & Natascha Bruce
Tang Fei (the pen name of Wang Jing) was born in 1983 in Shanghai. She is well known as a writer of science fiction and fantasy and is also a literary critic and essayist. Tang Fei was one of our star…
Translated by Nicky Harman
A picture of a choppy ocean
Photo by John Towner on Unsplash
Massacre in the Pacific: A Personal Account
By Du Qiang
It's not a crime to kill someone on the high seas, you know.
Translated from Chinese by Nicky Harman & Emily Jones
New in Chinese: “The Chilli Bean Paste Clan” by YAN Ge
By Nicky Harman
You might imagine that I thought long and hard in choosing my best untranslated book, because China has so many writers and so little of their work reaches the West, at least in English. But I plumped…
My Favorite Bookstore: Nicky Harman on Arthur Probsthain Oriental and African Bookseller
By Nicky Harman
Arthur Probsthain Oriental and African Bookseller, 41 Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3PEIn the narrow streets opposite the imposing edifice of the British Museum in Bloomsbury, London, there are a…
Free!
By Wang Bang
She’s too young, we can’t keep her.
Translated from Chinese by Nicky Harman
On “The Man with the Knife”
By Nicky Harman
When I met Susan Harris at the London Book Fair this year, she told me WWB was planning a non-Scandi crime issue. Would I like to look for a Chinese crime short story? she asked. I hesitated… contemporary…
The Shades who Periscope Through Flowers to the Sky
By Sun Yisheng
“If you don’t go home, there’ll be bloodshed.”
Translated from Chinese by Nicky Harman
The Man with the Knife
By Chen Xiwo
He was a famous poet, so they almost all submitted.
Translated from Chinese by Nicky Harman
Throwing Out the Baby
By Xu Zechen
It's just a dead kid, what are you making such a fuss about?
Translated from Chinese by Nicky Harman