Ma Ainong, the Chinese translator of Claire Keegan’s 2007 short-story collection Walk the Blue Fields (Chinese title published by Shanghai 99 Readers’ Culture Co. Ltd, 2011) has been awarded the inaugural Irish – Chinese Literature Translation Prize, which was presented by Consul General Austin Gormley at the Shanghai Book Fair on August 14.
The Prize is organised by the Consulate General of Ireland in Shanghai in association with the Shanghai Book Fair, the Shanghai Review of Books and Ireland Literature Exchange (ILE). The winner receives a trophy, a cash prize of 17,000 RMB, and a bursary to travel to Ireland to work on a further translation of a work by a contemporary Irish author.
Ma Ainong is a translator and editor who has translated over 40 English-language books into Chinese, including works by Virginia Woolf, L.M. Montgomery, and Annie Proulx, as well as J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series.
Claire Keegan is also the author of the prize-winning works Antarctica (1999) and Foster (2010).