'Taiwan Travelogue' translator nominated for 2 translation awards in U.S.

Taipei, Sept. 17 (CNA) Taiwanese-American Lin King (金翎) has received two nominations from the American Literary Translators Association (ALTA) for her translation of the novel "Taiwan Travelogue" (臺灣漫遊錄), the Taiwan Academy in Los Angeles said Tuesday.

King has been shortlisted for the First Translation Prize and longlisted for the National Translation Awards for her translation of the novel by Taiwanese author Yang Shuang-zi (楊双子), according to the academy, an overseas branch of Taiwan's Ministry of Culture tasked with promoting Taiwanese culture.

In a statement on ALTA's website, the judges for the First Translation Prize said "Taiwan Travelogue" was a "complex, multivocal meditation on language, power, and queer desire."

"In this dazzling meta-novel, Yang Shuang-zi crafts a fictional translation within a translation: a memoir by a Japanese writer in 1930s colonial Taiwan, filtered through Mandarin Chinese, which we in turn receive in English in Lin King's translation," the judges said.

They said King navigates the novel's shifting linguistic and historical registers with precision and flair, preserving its layered complexity, while bringing its "sensuous prose and intellectual play into English."

"This is a rare and remarkable act of translation, one that reflects upon itself as a translation," the judges said.

King stands to receive US$4,000 if she wins the National Translation Award, and an additional US$3,000 to be shared with her editor if she also takes the top prize in the First Translation Prize category, according to ALTA.

The winners of both awards will be announced on Nov. 6.

King and Yang rose to nationwide fame in Taiwan after winning the National Book Award for Translated Literature in the United States last November, becoming the first Taiwanese nationals to receive that honor.