Yan Ge

Yan Ge was born Dai Yuexing in December 1984 in the Pixian district of Chengdu.[1] She began writing at the age of ten and her first book was published when she was 17 years old.[2]

Yan completed a PhD in comparative literature at Sichuan University and is the Chair of the China Young Writers Association. Her writing includes substantial amounts of her native Sichuanese, rather than Standard Chinese.[3] People’s Literature (Renmin Wenxue 人民文学) magazine recently chose her – in a list reminiscent of The New Yorker's ‘20 under 40’ – as one of China's twenty future literary masters. In 2012 she was chosen as Best New Writer by the prestigious Chinese Literature Media Prize (华语文学传媒大奖 最佳新人奖). In 2011, she was awarded a visiting scholar position at Duke University.[4] Yan was a guest writer at the Crossing Border Festival in The Hague in November 2012, and has since appeared at numerous literary festivals throughout Europe.[5] She has lived in Dublin with her husband, Daniel, and their child since 2015.[6][7]

Yan has been writing in English in addition to Mandarin and Sichuanese. Her first English book is a 2023 short story collection Elsewhere: stories.[2][8] Reviewer Chelsea Leu wrote

Yan Ge’s English debut is preoccupied with language, its failures, and its relationship to human emotions and the raw reality – the 'food' – of life. ... These stories map out the distance between the head and the gut – the way language can fail to convey the deepest, most visceral facts of life."[8]

Reviewer Sindya Bhanoo wrote that the stories "explore the power of language across the Chinese diaspora to either bring people together or push them apart."[9]

• 2003 - Chinese Literature Media Award[10]
• 2002 - 1st prize, New Concept Writing Competition[10]
• 2001 - Honored as one of China's Top 10 Young Fiction Writers by the Lu Xun Literature School of the China Writers Association

• 五月女王 May Queen, 2008 - novel
• 钟腻哥 Sissy Zhong - short story (translated by Nicky Harman)[11]
• 白马 White Horse - novella (translated by Nicky Harman)[12]
• 照妖镜 Demon-Reflecting Mirror- novella[13]
• 平乐镇伤心故事集 Sad Stories of Pingle Township (5 stories including White Horse and Demon-Reflecting Mirror).[14]
• 我们家 Our Family, 2013.
  • English translation: The Chilli Bean Paste Clan, translated by Nicky Harman, Balestier Press, 2018; also German and French editions.[15]
• 异兽志 Record of Strange Beasts, 2006.
  • English translation: Strange Beasts of China, translated by Jeremy Tiang, Melville House Publishing, 2021.[16]
• Elsewhere: stories, 2023 - short stories. Scribner (US) and Faber (UK) ISBN 978-1-9821-9848-0 (published in English)