Ouyang Yu, now based in Melbourne, came to Australia in early 1991 and, by early 2022, has published 138 books of poetry, fiction, non-fiction, literary translation and literary criticism in the English and Chinese languages. He also edits Australia’s only Chinese literary journal, Otherland (since late 1996). His noted books include his award-winning novels, The Eastern Slope Chronicle (2002) and The English Class (2010), his collections of poetry, Songs of the Last Chinese Poet (1997), New and Selected Poems (Salt Publishing, 2004) and The Kingsbury Tales: A Complete Collection (2012), his translations in Chinese, of The Female Eunuch (1991), The Ancestor Game (1996), The Man Who Loved Children (1998, new edition 2014), The Shock of the New (2003, new edition 2019), The Fatal Shore (2014) and Nothing if not Critical (2016), his book of literary criticism, such as Chinese in Australian Fiction: 1888-1988 (Cambria Press, 2008) and his history book in Chinese, A History of Literary Exchange between Australia and China (Showwe Publishing, Taiwan, 2016).
Ouyang’s poetry has been included in the Best Australian Poetry collections for 9 times from 2004 to 2016, including his poetry translations from the Chinese in 2012 and 2013, and has been included in some of the major Australian collections, such as The Penguin Anthology of Australian Poetry (2009) and The Macquarie PEN Anthology of Australian Literature (2010) as well as The Turnrow Anthology of Contemporary Australian Poetry (2014).
In 2003, his first novel, The Eastern Slope Chronicle, was shortlisted for NSW Premier’s Literary Award and won the SA Arts Award for Innovation in Fiction in 2004.
In 2010, his second novel, The English Class (Transit Lounge), was named one of the Best Books of 2010 in Australian Book Review and The Age as well as the Sydney Morning Herald. This novel has since won the Community Relations Award in the 2011 NSW Premier’s Literature Award, and was short-listed for Christina Stead Fiction Award in the 2011 NSW Premier’s Literature Award,the 2011 Western Australia Premier’s Literature Award, the 2011 Queensland Premier’s Literature Award and the Melbourne Prize (in 2012). His third English novel, Loose: A Wild History, supported with a grant by Arts Victoria in 2000 and released in August 2011 by Wakefield Press, forms the Yellow Town Trilogy, together with his first, The Eastern Slope Chronicle, and his second, The English Class.
When Loose: A Wild History was published, one Australian critic said she would recommend Ouyang Yu as one of the three nominees for the Nobel Prize in Literature, ‘This is because I think that (along with Brian Castro and Gerald Murnane) Yu is a possible candidate for a Nobel Prize in Literature’: http://anzlitlovers.com/2011/12/18/loose-by-ouyang-yu/
His book of bilingual poetry, Self Translation (2012), short-listed for NSW Premier’s Translation Award in 2013, and a novel, Diary of a Naked Official (2014), were both published by Transit Lounge. His book of Chinese poetry, yongju yixiang (Permanently Resident in a Strange Country), was published in China in June 2016 by Zhejiang Literature and Arts Publishing House.
Ouyang Yu was nominated one of the Top 100 Most Influential Melbournians for the year 2011 as well as the Top 10 most influential writers of Chinese origin in the Chinese diaspora.
He was the finalist for the Best Writing Award in Melbourne Prize for Literature in 2012, and he also won an Honour Prize (for complete works) in Naji Naaman's literary prizes 2013 (visit www.najinaaman.org for more info).
In July 2014, The Fatal Shore he translated into Chinese won Book Award for Translation, awarded by the Australia-China Council, and, in 2016, he won a special award from Australia-China Council for his contribution to Australian Studies in China between 2000 and 2016, for ‘his contributions to Australian Studies in China through major translations and original works of scholarship’.
His translation in English of Chinese poetry, titled, Breaking New Sky: Contemporary Poetry from China, was shortlisted for the Multicultural NSW Early Career Translator Prize in 2015.
His poetry book, Fainting with Freedom, was shortlisted for the NSW Premier’s Award in 2016.
He was the ‘Siyuan Scholar’ and professor of English at Shanghai University of International Business and Economics, China, from late 2012 to May 2019.
In 2016, he won an Australia Council grant for writing a book of bilingual poetry, Flag of Permanent Defeat, which was published by Puncher & Wattmann in 2019.
His English translation of 4 Chinese poets in 4 books was published in April, 2019, by Puncher & Wattmann as well.
He was awarded a major Australia Council award for writing a novel in January 2019, with the result that the novel has been written.
On April 30th, 2019, the announcement was made that Ouyang Yu was one of the top ten poets in China for 2018, selected by the Xiron Poetry Club, part of the Beijing Xiron Books Ltd., established in 2015, the most important and influential private publishing company in China, and on September 18, 2020, he was once again nominated one of the top ten poets in China for 2019 by the Xiron Poetry Club.
On 28 November 2020, it was announced by ACAA, Australia China Alumni Association, that he won the honour of the Alumni of the Year in 2020.
From January to September 2020, he has published two collections of English poetry, Living After Death (MPU) and Terminally Poetic (Ginninderra Press), three poetry books of translation in English (Puncher & Wattmann), and a number of Chinese books.
Ouyang’s work has been translated into Danish, Swedish, Polish, Spanish, Russian, Kazakh, Vietnamese and Catalan.
His book of poetry, Terminally Poetic, won the Judith Wright Calanthe Award for a Poetry Collection in the 2021 Queensland Literary Awards. He was also shortlisted for the Melbourne Prize in 2021 and he won the Fellowship awarded by the Australia Council for the Arts in late 2021.
Ouyang translated A coach heading towards the provinces by Xifeng Yedu.
Ouyang maintains a website at www.huangzhouren.com.
Australian Poetry Library Author Entry
