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Tiffany Tsao

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Tiffany Tsao
Born1983
San Diego, California
NationalityAmerican
Alma materUniversity of California, Berkeley
Occupation(s)literary translator, writer
Years active2015–present
Notable workThe Majesties, Sergius seeks Bacchus (as translator), People from Bloomington (as translator)
AwardsPEN Translation Prize, NSW Premier's Translation Prize
Websitehttps://tiffanytsao.com/

Tiffany Tsao is an American-born literary translator and writer based in Sydney, Australia. She has translated a number of Indonesian writers into English, including Norman Erikson Pasaribu, Budi Darma, and Dewi Lestari.

Biography

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Tiffany Tsao was born in San Diego, California, United States in 1983.[1] Her family are of Indonesian Chinese background and she lived in Singapore and Jakarta, Indonesia for extended periods during her youth.[1][2] She did an undergraduate English degree at Wellesley College, a liberal arts college in Massachusetts, graduating in 2004; during that time she began to write her first novel The Oddfits.[2][1] She did a PhD in English literature at the University of California, Berkeley, finishing in 2009, and formally studied the Indonesian language there as well.[2][1][3] After finishing at UC-Berkeley, she worked as an academic teaching English literature at the Georgia Institute of Technology, the University of Sydney, and the University of Newcastle, Australia.[2] In 2015, she left academia to focus full-time on writing and translation, although she remained based in Sydney.[2]

Her first novel, The Oddfits, was published in 2016.[1][4] The sequel was called The More Known World and came out the following year.[2] Her novel about a Chinese Indonesian family, Under Your Wings, was published in Australia in 2018 and released in the US and UK as The Majesties in 2020 to largely positive reviews.[5][6]

Tsao became more involved in literary translation after leaving academia.[7] She got the opportunity to start translating Indonesian literary works to English when Indonesia was featured at the Frankfurt Book Fair.[3] She translated a number of works in the late 2010s, including Paper Boats by Dee Lestari (2017) and The Birdwoman's Palate by Laksmi Pamuntjak (2018). The writer she has translated the most is Norman Erikson Pasaribu, her translation of their Sergius seek Bacchus (2018) won the PEN Translates Award.[8] The two developed a close working relationship and friendship.[9][10][11][12] Tsao's English translation of Pasaribu's novel Happy Stories, Mostly won the 2022 Republic of Consciousness Prize and was longlisted for the 2022 International Booker Prize[13][8] At Pasaribu's encouragement, she obtained the rights to translate Budi Darma's Orang-Orang Bloomington, which she had been wanting to translate since first reading the collection in 2016.[14][15] The English translation was published as People from Bloomington by Penguin Classics in 2022. She corresponded closely with Budi Darma during the translation process, which took place over the COVID-19 pandemic. Tragically, Budi Darma passed away before the English edition's release.[16] The translation was well received, and won a PEN Translation Award as well as a NSW Premier's Translation Prize.[17][18][10][19]

Selected works

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As author

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As translator

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  • Paper Boats by Dee Lestari (Amazon Publishing, 2017[23])
  • The Birdwoman's palate by Laksmi Pamuntjak (AmazonCrossing, 2018[24])
  • Sergius Seeks Bacchus by Norman Erikson Pasaribu (Tilted Axis/Giramondo Publishing, 2019[25])
  • Kitchen curse: stories by Eka Kurniawan (co-translator, Verso, 2019[26]
  • Happy Stories, Mostly by Norman Erikson Pasaribu (Tilted Axis, 2021[27])
  • People from Bloomington by Budi Darma (Penguin Classics, 2022[28])

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e "Tiffany Tsao". Simon & Schuster. Retrieved 4 November 2023.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Hans, Teddy (26 January 2020). "Tiffany Tsao: Giving outsiders a voice". The Jakarta Post.
  3. ^ a b "Discover the longlist: Tiffany Tsao, 'Indonesian writing can defy foreign expectations'". The Booker Prizes. Retrieved 4 November 2023.
  4. ^ Asyiqin Mohamad Salleh., Nur (10 April 2016). "Fantasy tale set in Singapore: The protagonist in Tiffany Tsao's debut novel can travel to invisible lands". The Straits Times. Singapore.
  5. ^ Quamme, Margaret (15 November 2019). "The Majesties". The Booklist. Vol. 116, no. 6. Chicago. p. 26.
  6. ^ Krishna, Swapna (20 January 2020). "'The Majesties' Is Disturbing, Yet Shockingly Enjoyable". NPR. Retrieved 4 November 2023.
  7. ^ "Interview #154 — Tiffany Tsao". LIMINAL. 2020-11-16. Retrieved 2023-12-19.
  8. ^ a b "The Asia Center Welcomes Norman Erikson Pasaribu, 2023-24 Artist in Residence". Harvard University Asia Center. 7 August 2023. Retrieved 2 November 2023.
  9. ^ Heriyanto, Devina (22 January 2019). "'The sound to my voice': Norman Erikson Pasaribu on translator Tiffany Tsao". The Jakarta Post. Retrieved 4 November 2023.
  10. ^ a b Westmoreland, Emily. "A chat with Tiffany Tsao". Desperate Literature. Retrieved 4 November 2023.
  11. ^ Palattella, Nina. "Queer Joy Is Complicated in This Story Collection". Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved 2 November 2023.
  12. ^ Mazumdar, Arunima (10 February 2023). "Interview: Tiffany Tsao - "Indonesian literature is less well known"". Hindustan Times. Retrieved 2 November 2023.
  13. ^ "Norman Erikson Pasaribu". thebookerprizes.com. Retrieved 2 November 2023.
  14. ^ Tsao, Tiffany (2021-08-09). "Meet the People from Bloomington! They'll be arriving in English in April!". tiffany tsao. Retrieved 2023-12-19.
  15. ^ sudewo, adam (2023-09-04). "A Conversation with Tiffany Tsao". Medium. Retrieved 2023-12-19.
  16. ^ Tsao, Tiffany (7 February 2023). "When We Became the People from Bloomington". Sydney Review of Books.
  17. ^ Rockwell, Daisy (9 January 2023). "Lost in translations: A look at some of the best translated works in 2022". India Today. New Delhi.
  18. ^ "One book just won a record four out of 14 prizes at $350,000 NSW literary awards". ABC News. 22 May 2023. Retrieved 4 November 2023.
  19. ^ "Tsao wins US PEN Translation Prize". Books+Publishing. 7 March 2023. Retrieved 4 November 2023.
  20. ^ "The oddfits". WorldCat. Retrieved 3 November 2023.
  21. ^ "The more known world". WorldCat. Retrieved 3 November 2023.
  22. ^ "The majesties : a novel". WorldCat. Retrieved 3 November 2023.
  23. ^ "Paper Boats". WorldCat. Retrieved 3 November 2023.
  24. ^ "The Birdwoman's palate". WorldCat. Retrieved 3 November 2023.
  25. ^ "Sergius seeks Bacchus". WorldCat. Retrieved 2 November 2023.
  26. ^ "Kitchen curse : stories". WorldCat. Retrieved 3 November 2023.
  27. ^ "Happy stories, mostly". WorldCat. Retrieved 2 November 2023.
  28. ^ "People from Bloomington". WorldCat. Retrieved 3 November 2023.
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