Tiffany Tsao is an American-born literary translator and writer based in

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

, Australia. She has translated a number of Indonesian writers into English, including Norman Erikson Pasaribu,

Budi Darma Budi Darma (25 April 1937 – 21 August 2021) was an Indonesian writer, essayist, and academic. Early life Budi is the fourth of six children, all male. During his childhood and teens, Budi and his family lived in a number of different cities ...

, and

Dewi Lestari Dewi "Dee" Lestari Simangunsong (born 20 January 1976, in Bandung, West Java) is an Indonesian writer, singer, and songwriter. Biography Dee was born in Bandung, West Java on 20 January 1976; she was the fourth of five children born to a religi ...

Biography

Tiffany Tsao was born in

San Diego San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, United States in 1983. Her family are of

Indonesian Chinese Chinese Indonesians (), or simply ''Orang Tionghoa'' or ''Tionghoa'', are Indonesians whose ancestors arrived from China at some stage in the last eight centuries. Chinese Indonesians are the fourth largest community of Overseas Chinese in th ...

background and she lived in

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

and Jakarta, Indonesia for extended periods during her youth. She did an undergraduate English degree at

Wellesley College Wellesley College is a Private university, private Women's colleges in the United States, historically women's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Wellesley, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1870 by Henr ...

, a liberal arts college in

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

, graduating in 2004; during that time she began to write her first novel ''The Oddfits''. She did a PhD in English literature at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

, finishing in 2009, and formally studied the

Indonesian language Indonesian (; ) is the official language, official and national language of Indonesia. It is a standard language, standardized variety (linguistics), variety of Malay language, Malay, an Austronesian languages, Austronesian language that has ...

there as well. After finishing at UC-Berkeley, she worked as an academic teaching English literature at the Georgia Institute of Technology, the University of Sydney, and the University of Newcastle, Australia. In 2015, she left academia to focus full-time on writing and translation, although she remained based in Sydney. Her first novel, ''The Oddfits'', was published in 2016. The sequel was called ''The More Known World'' and came out the following year. Her novel about a Chinese Indonesian family, ''Under Your Wings'', was published in Australia in 2018 and released in the US and UK as ''The Majesties'' in 2020 to largely positive reviews. Tsao became more involved in literary translation after leaving academia. She got the opportunity to start translating Indonesian literary works to English when Indonesia was featured at the

Frankfurt Book Fair The Frankfurt Book Fair (German: , FBM) is the world's largest trade fair for books, based on the number of publishing companies represented. The five-day annual event in mid-October is held at the Frankfurt Trade Fair grounds in Frankfurt am ...

. She translated a number of works in the late 2010s, including ''Paper Boats'' by Dee Lestari (2017) and ''The Birdwoman's Palate'' by

Laksmi Pamuntjak Laksmi Pamuntjak (born 1971) is an Indonesian novelist, poet, journalist and food critic based in Jakarta. In 2016, she won thfor the German translation of her debut novel, ''Amba/The Question of Red.'' In 2018, the movie adaptation of her s ...

(2018). The writer she has translated the most is Norman Erikson Pasaribu, her translation of their ''Sergius seek Bacchus'' (2018) won the PEN Translates Award. The two developed a close working relationship and friendship. Tsao's English translation of Pasaribu's novel ''Happy Stories, Mostly'' won the 2022

Republic of Consciousness Prize The Republic of Consciousness Prize for Small Presses is an annual British literary prize founded by the author Neil Griffiths. It rewards fiction published by UK and Irish small presses, defined as those with fewer than five full-time employee ...

and was longlisted for the 2022

International Booker Prize The International Booker Prize (formerly known as the Man Booker International Prize) is an international literary award hosted in the United Kingdom. The introduction of the International Prize to complement the Man Booker Prize, as the Boo ...

At Pasaribu's encouragement, she obtained the rights to translate

's ''Orang-Orang Bloomington'', which she had been wanting to translate since first reading the collection in 2016. The English translation was published as ''People from Bloomington'' by Penguin Classics in 2022. She corresponded closely with Budi Darma during the translation process, which took place over the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. Tragically, Budi Darma passed away before the English edition's release. The translation was well received, and won a PEN Translation Award as well as a

NSW Premier's Translation Prize New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a state on the east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria to the south, and South Australia to the west. Its coast borders the Coral and Tasman Seas to the east. T ...

Selected works

As author

* ''The Oddfits'' ( AmazonCrossing, 2016) * ''The More Known World'' (AmazonCrossing, 2017) * ''The Majesties'' (Atria Books, 2020)

As translator

* ''Paper Boats'' by Dee Lestari (Amazon Publishing, 2017) * ''The Birdwoman's palate'' by

(AmazonCrossing, 2018) * ''Sergius Seeks Bacchus'' by Norman Erikson Pasaribu (Tilted Axis/Giramondo Publishing, 2019) * ''Kitchen curse: stories'' by

Eka Kurniawan Eka Kurniawan (born November 28, 1975) is an Indonesian writer and screenwriter. In 2016, Kurniawan became the first Indonesian writer to be nominated for the Man Booker International Prize. Early life Kurniawan was born in Tasikmalaya, West ...

(co-translator, Verso, 2019 * ''Happy Stories, Mostly'' by Norman Erikson Pasaribu (Tilted Axis, 2021) * ''People from Bloomington'' by

(Penguin Classics, 2022)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:tsao, tiffany 1983 births 21st-century American translators Academic staff of the University of Newcastle (Australia) Academic staff of the University of Sydney American expatriates in Australia Australian translators 21st-century American women writers 21st-century Australian women writers Writers from San Diego Living people