Lin King's Translation "The Boy from Clearwater" Wins 2023 Freeman Award
The Weatherhead East Asian Institute is delighted to congratulate Lin King for her award-winning translation of the The Boy from Clearwater, books one and two. The Boy from Clearwater: Book 1 was recently awarded the 2023 Freeman Award for best Young Adult - Middle & High School graphic novel. The graphic novel, originally written in Mandarin Chinese, Taiwanese Hoklo, and Japanese by Yu Pei-Yun and illustrated by Zhou Jian-Xin, follows Tsai Kun-lin an ordinary Taiwanese boy, through war and Japanese occupation. The Boy from Clearwater: Book 2 is scheduled for release in May 2024.
Booklist raves: “The extraordinary triumvirate—writer Yu, artist Zhou, and translator King (an enviable polyglot fluent in Taiwanese Hoklo, Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, and English)—reunite to finish what they began with the first volume. Exquisite, intricate graphics again capture the titular boy’s remarkable, long life… Yu, Zhou, and King bear glorious witness to little-known tragic history by empathetically spotlighting an everyday superhero who survived—and thrives.”
The Freeman Book Awards recognize quality books for children and young adults that contribute meaningfully to an understanding of East and Southeast Asia. Awards are given in two categories: Children’s and Young Adult on the several countries of East and Southeast Asia.
In addition to her position at WEAI, Lin King is a writer and translator. Lin holds a BA in English from Princeton University with minors in East Asian Studies and Creative Writing. She earned her MFA in Fiction and Literary Translation at Columbia University, where she taught undergraduate writing. Her work has appeared in publications including Boston Review, Joyland, Asymptote, and Columbia Journal, and has won the PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers. She translates from Mandarin Chinese and Japanese to English, and her translation of Yang Shuang-zi's Taiwan Travelogue is forthcoming from Graywolf Press.