Ouyang, Yu

'Ouyang Malley is an unknown Australian poet whose first published poem is 'The Kingsbury Tales: the shirt'.'

(Author's biography for pseudonym, Cordite no.23, 2005.)

Ouyang Yu graduated from Wuhan Institute of Hydro-Electric Engineering (now Wuhan University) with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and American Literature, then completed a Master of Arts degree in Australian and English literature at East China Normal University in Shanghai. From 1983 to 1986 he worked as an interpreter and translator in China and as a lecturer in English at Wuhan University from 1989 to 1991.

After coming to Australia, Ouyang undertook his Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree at La Trobe University on the representation of the Chinese in Australian fiction. Since then his literary work has appeared regularly in most major Australian and many overseas literary journals. In addition to his poetry, criticism and English translations of Chinese literature, he has translated many major Australian works into Chinese, including The Shock of the New by Robert Hughes and The Female Eunuch and The Whole Woman by Germaine Greer.

In 1995 he was awarded a translation grant by Arts Victoria for The Ancestor Game by Alex Miller and the following year received a major grant from the National Book Council for a translation of The Man Who Loved Children by Christina Stead. Also in late 1994 he co-founded Otherland (Australia's first Chinese-language literary journal) with Ding Xiaoqi. In 1998 he published his first book of Chinese-language poetry and was awarded the major grant for literary translation from the Australian Society of Authors for a translation of Capricornia by Xavier Herbert. In 2000 he received another translation grant from the Australian Society of Authors. His first English novel, The Eastern Slope Chronicle was completed with assistance from a grant provided by Arts Victoria in 1999. He also won a grant from Arts Victoria to assist him in the writing of his second novel and in November 2001, Ouyang was awarded a major Australia Council grant for his third novel.

In 1988 and 1989 he received third prize in the East China Normal University Award for Social Science Research. In 1990 he won second prize in the First National Ge Baoquan Award for Foreign Short Stories in Chinese Translation for his translation of 'A Report from the Shadow Industry' by Peter Carey. In 1999, he was awarded a grant by AsiaLink to be writer in residence at Beijing University, China, as part of AsiaLink Residence Program, to write his non-fictional book, On the Smell of an Oily Rag: Notes on the Margins. In 2000 his Chinese-language novel The Angry Wu Zili received the Award for Excellence in Fiction from the Federation of Overseas Chinese Associations, Taiwan, as did his critical work Representing the Other: Chinese in Australian Fiction: 1888-1988, written in Chinese, in the category of Social and Humane Studies in 2001. In October 2003 Ouyang's self-published hand-made collection of English poetry, Foreign Matter, received the Award for Self-published Books in the category of poetry in Fastbooks Self-publishing Competition at the 4th Australian Publishers and Authors Bookshow.

Also a member of AliTra, the Victorian Writers' Centre and the Australian-Chinese Writers Association as well as the Australian Society of Authors, Ouyang has acted as a Coordinator for the Chinese Arts Festival in Victoria. He judged the Victorian Premier's Literary Award in 2000 in the literary translation category and has examined Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) theses on literature for various Australian universities. He was a postdoctoral fellow in the Faculty of Arts, Deakin University (1999-2001) and a postdoctoral fellow at Deakin University (2003). He was Professor of Australian Literature in the English Department, Wuhan University, People's Republic of China (2005-2008), as well as writer in residence at ANU, ADFA and UC in 2007.