According to the Yale Daily News, on March 29, local time, Yale University announced the list of eight winners of the 2022 Wyndham Campbell Award. Among them, Huang Mei, a Chinese-born poet born in China, won the prize. Since Li Yiyun, a Chinese-American in 2020, won the title of the award's novel award that year, after a year, there are once again Chinese people on the list of winners of this award. This time, the organizing committee awarded the poetry prize to the poet who has devoted himself to translating Tang poetry to the world in recent years.
"It was a complete surprise." In an interview with The Irish Times, Ms. Huang recalled that one day in February, when she was checking her mailbox as usual, she was attracted by a special email and then received a phone call informing her that she had won the Wyndham Campbell Prize for Poetry. Born in Chongqing in 1944, she moved to Singapore with her mother, living in the United States, Canada and many European cities, and now choosing to moor berth because she is married to an Irishman, and the organizing committee describes Huang Mei as a "mysterious person".
She has been translating Tang poems since 2014, when she published her fourth collection, Picasso's Tears, and her latest work, In the Same Light: 200 Tang Poems for Our Century, was published at the end of January this year. According to Huang Mei, she has regarded every poet as her boss for the past five years, and when asked about "who she likes to work for the most," she blurted out Du Fu, "He is the most humane and the most tolerant."
Dust with Light: 200 Tang Poems of Our Time, by Huang Mei.
Rather than being called a "poet," Huang mei says she prefers to be described as a "cultural worker" who writes poetry and paints. "In China, painting and poetry are regarded as the same art, and if the muse really exists, then there is only one." Speaking of this award, Huang Mei is also hesitant to expose the potential consequences to the public, she admires Elena Ferrante, who wrote the "Neapolitan Quadrilogy", and she can maintain her private life while her work gets attention, just like the jianghu is full of legends about her, and she herself can hide in the jianghu.
The Wyndham Campbell Prize was first awarded in 2011 and is one of the most lucrative literary awards in the world. The awards are aimed at fictional, non-fictional, poetic and dramatic works created in English, and eight winners are selected each year.
"The Wyndham Campbell Awards have recognized many outstanding literary achievements over the past decade," said Michael Kelleher, chairman of the organizing committee, "and led by a group of groundbreaking global female voices, these writers bridge the gap between national history and individual narratives with their ambitious, skilled and touching work." This year marks the tenth anniversary of the award, and since it was first presented in 2013, 83 winners from 21 countries around the world have been awarded, including the American writer James Salter, whose long-form translation of All That Is was published in China in February this year.
"All This", by James Sauter, translated by Liu Wei, Republic of | Hainan Publishing House, February 2022.
It is worth noting that unlike other literary awards such as the Booker Prize, the Wyndham Campbell Prize does not have a long or short list of finalists, and the winners are notified directly by email and telephone, and neither the candidate nor the audience need to be anxious to wait for the list to be announced. In response, Kelleher recalled: "One writer once told me that I was glad I didn't have to sit still and nervously finish dinner, nervously stare at the screen – lose, and then smile ..." Although the Wyndham Campbell Award did not receive much attention in the lottery method without setting a long list, Kelleher said, "Over time, people will pay attention, not because of the shortlist, nor because of how many prizes we have set, but because of the people we have recognized for this award for many years." ”
It is reported that the award ceremony will take place at the annual International Literature Festival held at Yale University from September 19 to 22 this year. Natasha Trethewey, who has twice won the American Poet Laureate, will also deliver a keynote speech.
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Resources:
1.https://news.yale.edu/2022/03/29/eight-writers-awarded-yales-windham-campbell-prizes
2.https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/mar/29/zimbabwean-novelist-tsitsi-dangarembga-among-this-years-windham-campbell-prize-winners-margo-jefferson-winsome-pinnock
3.https://publishingperspectives.com/2022/03/the-windham-campbell-prizes-michael-kelleher-not-a-book-award/
4.https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/wong-may-interview-a-transnational-and-constantly-surprising-thinker-1.4838124
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