Ouyang Yu (; born 1955) is a contemporary

Chinese Australian Chinese Australians () are Australians of Chinese origin. Chinese Australians are one of the largest groups within the global Chinese diaspora, and are the largest Asian Australian community. Per capita, Australia has more people of Chine ...

author,

translator Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''trans ...

and academic.

Early life and education

Ouyang Yu was born in the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

, arriving in Australia in 1991 to study for a Ph. D. at

La Trobe University La Trobe University is a public university, public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. Its main campus is located in the suburb of Bundoora, Victoria, Bundoora. The university was established in 1 ...

, which he completed in 1995.

Career

Ouyang's literary output has been prodigious. Apart from several collections of poetry and a novel he has translated authors as diverse as

Christina Stead Christina Stead (17 July 190231 March 1983) was an Australian novelist and short-story writer acclaimed for her satirical wit and penetrating psychological characterisations. Christina Stead was a committed Marxist, although she was never a me ...

Xavier Herbert Xavier Herbert (born Alfred Jackson; 15 May 190110 November 1984) was an Australian writer best known for his Miles Franklin Award-winning novel '' Poor Fellow My Country'' (1975). He was considered one of the elder statesmen of Australian lite ...

Germaine Greer Germaine Greer (; born 29 January 1939) is an Australian writer and feminist, regarded as one of the major voices of the second-wave feminism movement in the latter half of the 20th century. Specializing in English and women's literature, she ...

, and

David Malouf David George Joseph Malouf (; born 20 March 1934) is an Australian poet, novelist, short story writer, playwright and Libretto, librettist. Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2008, Malouf has lectured at both the University ...

. He also edits (or edited) ''Otherland'', a bilingual English-

Chinese Chinese may refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people identified with China, through nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **Han Chinese, East Asian ethnic group native to China. **'' Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic ...

literary journal. Yu's poem "New Accents" is one of the prescribed texts in Module A of the HSC subject, English Standard.

Recognition and awards

In 2015 Ouyang was shortlisted for the

New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards The New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, also known as the NSW Premier's Literary Awards, were first awarded in 1979. They are among the richest literary awards in Australia. Notable prizes include the Christina Stead Prize for Fiction, th ...

Translation Prize, In 2019 his poem "New Accents" was included as a prescribed text for English Standard. In 2021 he won the

Judith Wright Calanthe Award The Arts Queensland Judith Wright Calanthe Award is awarded annually as part of the Queensland Premier's Literary Awards for a book of collected poems or for a single poem of substantial length published in book form. The prize honours the work of ...

for a Poetry Collection at the

Queensland Literary Awards The Queensland Literary Awards is an awards program established in 2012 by the Queensland literary community, funded by sponsors and administered by the State Library of Queensland. Like the former Queensland Premier's Literary Awards, the QLAs ...

for ''Terminally Poetic''. Also in 2021, he was a finalist for the Writer's Prize in the

Melbourne Prize for Literature The Melbourne Prize Trust is a charitable foundation in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It was founded in 2004 by Simon H. Warrender for the specific purpose of awarding three arts awards on a rotating three-year basis: the Melbourne Prize for Ur ...

Bibliography

Poetry

* ''Moon Over Melbourne and other Poems '' (Papyrus Publishing, 1995) * ''Songs of the Last Chinese Poet'' (Wild Peony, 1997) * ''Two Hearts, Two Tongues and Rain-Coloured Eyes'' (University of Hawaii, 2002) * ''New and Selected Poems'' (Salt, 2004) * ''Listening To'' (Vagabond Press, 2006) * ''Reality Dreams'' (Picaro Press, 2008) * ''The Kingsbury Tales'' (Brandl and Schlesinger, 2008) * ''Terminally Poetic'' (Ginninderra, 2020)

Novels

* ''Fen nu de Wu Zili'' (Otherland, 1999) * ''The Eastern Slope Chronicle'' (Brandl & Schlesinger, 2002) * ''The English Class'' (

Transit Lounge Transit Lounge Publishing is an independent Australian literary small press founded in Melbourne in 2005. It publishes literary fiction, narrative and trade non-fiction. The books it publishes show the diversity of Australian culture. Distribut ...

, 2010) * ''Loose: A Wild History'' (Wakefield Press, 2011) * ''Diary of a Naked Official'' (Transit Lounge, 2014) * ''A Lonely Night Boat'' (Liehairen, 2016) * ''Billy Sing: A Novel'' (Transit Lounge, 2017) * ''Ta : yibu guanyu xiaoshuo de xiaoshuo'' (Showwe Publishing, 2017) * ''Lüse : Vol I'' (Showwe Publishing, 2018) * ''Lüse : Vol II'' (Showwe Publishing, 2019) * ''All the Rivers Run South'' (Puncher and Wattmann, 2023)

Selected non-fiction

*''On the Smell of an Oily Rag: Speaking English, Thinking Chinese and Living Australian'' (Wakefield Press, 2008) *''Chinese in Australian Fiction, 1888–1988'' (Cambria Press, 2008) * *"You in the I": The Chinese-Australian writer Ouyang Yu speaks to Prem Poddar, ''Beyond the Yellow Pale: Essays and Criticism'', (Otherland Publishing, 2010)

External links

Invading Australia: a Sequence
at cordite.org.au

at Jacket Magazine
Poems
at Poetry International Web

at Blackmail Press

References

1955 births Living people 21st-century Australian male writers 21st-century Australian novelists Australian male novelists Australian male poets Australian people of Chinese descent Australian poets Overland (magazine) people {{Australia-poet-stub