It’s my favorite day on the Chinese literary calendar—announcement day for the annual Blancpain-Imaginist Literary Prize longlist! Most of the nominees have never had their work appear in English before, but there are two whose books just came out in translation: 张悦然 Zhang Yueran, whose nominated novel Swan Hotel《天鹅旅馆》 was translated this year by Jeremy Tiang as Women, Seated; and 杨好 Yang Hao, whose earlier novel Diablo’s Boys is now out in a translation by Nicky Harman and Michael Day.

Also, the list includes two personal favorites of mine: Wang Zhanhei and Cui Jun, whom I have previously covered on this very newsletter. You may be reading about other nominees in the Cold Window Summer Special later this month…

See the full longlist below and in 理想国 Imaginist’s official announcement: mp.weixin.qq.com/s/gFeF…