Ouyang Yu

Australian poet, novelist and critic

Ouyang Yu graduated from Wuhan Institute of Hydro-Electric Engineering (now Wuhan University) with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and American Literature in 1983, then completed a Master of Arts degree in Australian and English literature at East China Normal University in Shanghai in 1989. He worked as an interpreter and translator in China (1986-1989) and as a lecturer in English at Wuhan University (1989-1991).

After coming to Australia in April 1991, Ouyang Yu undertook his Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree at La Trobe University on the representation of the Chinese in Australian fiction. Since then his literary work has appeared regularly in most major Australian and many overseas literary journals. In addition to his poetry, criticism and English translations of Chinese literature, he has translated many major Australian works into Chinese, including The Shock of the New by Robert Hughes and The Female Eunuch and The Whole Woman by Germaine Greer.

In 1995 he was awarded a translation grant by Arts Victoria for The Ancestor Game by Alex Miller and in the following year received a major grant from the National Book Council for a translation of The Man Who Loved Children by Jessica Anderson. Also in late 1994 he co-founded Otherland (Australia's first Chinese-language literary journal) with Ding Xiaoqi and Sun Haoliang. In 1997 he published his first book of Chinese-language poetry and was awarded the major grant for literary translation from the Australian Society of Authors in 1998 for a translation of Capricornia by Xavier Herbert. His first English novel, The Eastern Slope Chronicle was completed with assistance from a grant provided by Arts Victoria in 1999. He also won a grant from Arts Victoria to assist him in the writing of his second novel and in November 2001, Ouyang was awarded a major Australia Council grant for his third novel.

In 1988 and 1989 he received third prize in the East China Normal University Award for Social Science Research. In 1990 he won second prize in the First National Ge Baoquan Award for Foreign Short Stories in Chinese Translation for his translation of ＆A Report from the Shadow Industry＊ by Peter Carey. In late 1999, he was awarded a grant by AsiaLink to be writer in residence at Beijing University, China, as part of AsiaLink Residence Program, to write his non-fictional book, On the Smell of an Oily Rag: Notes on the Margins, published in early 2008 as On the Smell of an Oily Rag: Speaking English, Thinking Chinese and Living Australian. In 2000 his novel The Angry Wu Zili received the Award for Excellence in Fiction from the Federation of Overseas Chinese Associations, Taiwan, as did his critical work Representing the Other in the category of Social and Humane Studies in 2001. In October 2003 Ouyang Yu's self-published hand-made collection of English poetry, Foreign Matter, received the Award for Self-published Books in the category of poetry in Fastbooks Self-publishing Competition at the 4th Australian Publishers and Authors Bookshow.

Also a member of AliTra, the Victorian Writers' Centre and the Australian-Chinese Writers Association, Ouyang Yu has acted as a Coordinator for the Chinese Arts Festival in Victoria. He judged the Victorian Premier's Literary Award in 2000 in the literary translation category and has examined Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) theses on literature for various Australian universities. He was a postdoctoral fellow in the Faculty of Arts, Deakin University (1999-2001) and a postdoctoral fellow at Deakin University (2003). In 2005 he became Professor of Australian Literature in the English Department, Wuhan University, People's Republic of China.

By the end of 2008, he has published 44 books in both English and Chinese in the field of poetry, fiction, non-fiction, literary criticism and translation.

Awards
求Australia Council Grants, Awards and Fellowships, Literature Board Grants, Grants for Established Writers, 2007
Note: $30,000 for poetry writing in Chinese and English.
求Australia Council Grants, Awards and Fellowships, Literature Board Grants, Grants for Established Writers, 2004
求Australia Council Grants, Awards and Fellowships, translation grant, 1999
求Festival Awards for Literature (SA), Award for Innovation in Writing, 2004: winner for The Eastern Slope Chronicle
求New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, Community Relations Commission Award, 2003: shortlisted for The Eastern Slope Chronicle
求Wild & Woolley Prize for Best Independently Published Australian Books, Poetry, 2003: winner for Foreign Matter
求New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, Ethnic Affairs Commission Award, 1999: shortlisted for Songs of the Last Chinese Poet
求H.M. Butterley - F. Earle Hooper Memorial Award, 1995: winner for Moon Over Melbourne

ㄗInformation based on the Austlit website information but revised and updated on 3/1/2009ㄘ