Bio

YZ Chin is the author of Edge Case and Though I Get Home. Edge Case is a New York Times Editors' Choice and an NPR Books We Love pick for 2021. Though I Get Home won the Louise Meriwether First Book Prize and the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature honor title.

Chin is also a translator of Mahua literature. Her full-length translations include novels by Li Zi Shu and King Ban Hui (forthcoming). Her work has been supported by fellowships from MacDowell and the National Endowment for the Arts. She was born and raised in Taiping, Malaysia.

Project Description

To support the translation of the novel This Timeworn Land by Li Zi Shu from Chinese. Li was born in Malaysia in 1971 and has become an emblem of Mahua—Chinese-language literature written by Malaysian writers—with more than ten volumes of work that include novels, short story collections, micro fiction, and essays. This Timeworn Land brings to life her hometown of Ipoh, Malaysia, from the 1980s to present day, as seen from the perspective of ethnic minorities in Malaysia. Narrated in episodic vignettes with wit and unsentimental pathos, the book revolves around three childhood friends from Kinta Heights, an affordable housing apartment complex that was once Ipoh's tallest building. Published in 2020, the book has sold more than 100,000 copies across Malaysia, Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and beyond.