Like many Chinese writers of his generation, Su Wei spent his teenage years being “re-educated” through farm labor in the countryside, working for ten years on a rubber plantation in the mountains of tropical Hainan Island. He is known for his nonfiction essays as well as for his highly imaginative novels, which are seen as unique in their treatment of the Cultural Revolution. He left China in 1989, and since 1997 he has taught Chinese language and literature at Yale University. The Invisible Valley is his first book to be translated into English.
Austin Woerner is a Chinese-English literary translator. His works include two volumes of poetry, Doubled Shadows: Selected Poetry of Ouyang Jianghe and Phoenix, and a novel, The Invisible Valley by Su Wei. He served as English translation editor for the innovative Chinese literary journal Chutzpah!, and co-edited the short fiction anthology Chutzpah!: New Voices from China. He holds a BA in East Asian Studies from Yale and an MFA in creative writing from the New School. He lives and works in Shanghai, China.
Austin Woerner’s translations include two poetry collections, Doubled Shadows: Selected Poetry of Ouyang Jianghe and Phoenix. He was the English translation editor for the Chinese literary journal Chutzpah! and co-edited Chutzpah!: New Voices from China. He holds a BA in East Asian Studies from Yale and an MFA from the New School. He is a lecturer at Duke Kunshan University in Shanghai, China.
