Sabine Huynh (born 1972) is a Vietnamese-born French writer, poet, translator, and

literary critic A genre of arts criticism, literary criticism or literary studies is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical analysis of literature' ...

Biography

Born in

Saigon Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) ('','' TP.HCM; ), commonly known as Saigon (; ), is the most populous city in Vietnam with a population of around 14 million in 2025. The city's geography is defined by rivers and canals, of which the largest is Saigo ...

during the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...

, Huynh grew up in France, and has lived in England, the United States, Canada and Israel. She currently lives in

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( or , ; ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a popula ...

, Israel. She studied literature written in the English and Spanish languages,

education sciences Education sciences, also known as education studies or education theory, and traditionally called ''pedagogy'', seek to describe, understand, and prescribe education including education policy. Subfields include comparative education, educational ...

, and French as a foreign language at the University of Lyon,

and pedagogy at Homerton College, Cambridge, linguistics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and sociolinguistics, as a Post-Doctoral Fellow, at the University of Ottawa. She holds a PhD in Linguistics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where she taught from 2002 to 2008 (in the French department: composition, French grammar and literature, literary theories, narratology). She was a French Lector at the University of Leicester in 1995-96. Before becoming a full-time writer and literary translator, she worked as a foreign language teacher for many years, in France, England, the United States and Israel.

Literary achievements

Huynh writes poetry and prose works (novels, essays, short stories, diaries), mostly in French. Her first literary publications, in English, are from 2000: ''The Dudley Review'', annual literary journal showcasing writing and artwork by Harvard University graduate students. In 2015, she won the 2015 European Calliope literary prize (awarded to promising young Francophone authors by the Cénacle Européen francophone, which used to be the Association Léopold Sédar-Senghor). She has translated English poetry, English and Modern Hebrew poetry, Hebrew into French. She has translated Uri Orlev's poetry and prose, and other writers' and poets', among them Anne Sexton, Gwendolyn Brooks, Seymour Mayne, Dara Barnat, Carla Harryman, Laynie Browne, Karen Alkalay-Gut, Rodger Kamenetz, Ilya Kaminsky, Katie Farris. Her translation of Ilya Kaminsky's collection ''Ilya Kaminsky, Deaf Republic'' won the 2022 Alain Bosquet Poetry Award. Her articles and book reviews have been published in various cultural and literary magazines over the years, including ''The Jerusalem Post'', ''La Nouvelle Quinzaine littéraire'', '':fr:Diacritik, Diacritik''. Her poetry collections include ''Setting Sail - 60 Sonnets for the Boat People'', ''Herbyers'', ''Loin du rivage'', ''Parler peau'', ''Les colibris à reculons'', ''Kvar lo'', which won France's 2017 CoPo Poetry Prize, and ''Dans le tournant/Into the Turning'', a bilingual English-French book (co-author: Amy Hollowell). Her epistolary essay addressed to poet Allen Ginsberg, whom she met when she was 21, was published in 2016 under the title ''Avec vous ce jour-là – Lettre au poète Allen Ginsberg'' (MaelstrÖm reEvolution, Brussels). Her novels include ''Elvis à la radio'' (Maurice Nadeau Editions, 2022), which won the 2023 Jean-Jacques Rousseau Award, and the 2023 "Des racines et des mots" Prize for Exile Literature; and ''La Mer et l'enfant'' (Galaade Editions, 2013), which was shortlisted for the 2014 Emmanuel-Roblès Prize and for the 2013 Chambery's First Novel Festival Prize. Literary journalist Alain Nicolas referred to the novel ''Elvis à la radio'' in the December 8th, 2022 issue of the French national newspaper ''L'Humanité'' as "a text like no other, where the material world imposes its poetic presence and gives this amnesiac autobiography an authority that the personal documentary will never have."

Published works

* ''Prendre la mer - 60 sonnets pour les Boat People'' (poetry, éditions Bruno Doucey, 2024.) * ''Herbyers'' (poetry, Backland éditions, 2024) * ''Elvis à la radio'' (novel, éditions Maurice Nadeau, 2022) * ''Loin du rivage'' (poetry, éditions de la Margeride, 2022) * ''Parler peau'' (poetry, with artwork by Philippe Agostini. Éditions Æncrages & Co, coll. Voix de chants, 2019) * ''Dans le tournant – Into the Turning'' (poetry, Christophe Chomant éditeur, 2019) * ''Avec vous ce jour-là – Lettre au poète Allen Ginsberg'' (epistolary essay, MaelstrÖm reEvolution, Brussels, 2016) * ''Kvar lo'' (poetry, with artwork by Caroline François-Rubino. Postface: Philippe Rahmy. Éditions Æncrages & Co, coll. , 2016) * ''Tu amarres les vagues'' (poetry, with photographs by Louise Imagine. Preface: Isabelle Pariente-Butterlin. Jacques Flament Éditions, coll. Images & Mots, 2016) * ''La Sirène à la poubelle'' (diary, E-fractions, coll. Fugit XXI, 2015) * ''Ville infirme, corps infini'' (poetry, éditions La Porte, coll. Poésie en voyage, 2014) * ''Tel Aviv / ville infirme / corps infini [Tel Aviv: ir nekha, guf ein ketz'', artist's book, with artwork by André Jolivet (poetry, Voltije éditions, 2014) : bilingual edition French-Hebrew (tr. : Sabine Huynh and Hillel Halkin) * ''Les Colibris à reculons'', with artwork by Christine Delbecq (poetry, Voix d'encre, 2013) * ''En taxi dans Jérusalem'' (prose), with photographs by Anne Collongues (publie.net, coll. Horizons, 2014) * ''La Mer et l'enfant'' (novel, Galaade éditions, 2013) * ''La Migration des papillons'', with Roselyne Sibille (poetry, éditions La Porte, coll. Poésie en voyage, 2013) * ''pas d'ici, pas d'ailleurs'' (poetry anthology, éditions Voix d'encre, 2012. Book published with the help of Région Rhône-Alpes).Introduction
by Sabine Huynh

Translations

Sabine Huynh is the author of many translations. A list of translated books can be found on her persona
website
on :fr:Sabine Huynh, Wikipedia France and on the website of th
ATLF
Association of French Literary Translators.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Huynh, Sabine Living people French translators English–French translators Italian–French translators Spanish–French translators 1972 births French-language poets 21st-century French women writers 21st-century French poets French people of Vietnamese descent French essayists French women essayists French literary critics French women literary critics Israeli women literary critics Israeli women poets Israeli essayists Israeli women essayists Israeli poets Israeli translators 21st-century translators Israeli people of Vietnamese descent People from Saigon University of Lyon alumni Alumni of Homerton College, Cambridge Hebrew University of Jerusalem alumni University of Ottawa alumni