Re-posting a message from the Nobel 2022 Speculation thread. Sadly, she will no longer be in the running for the prize.
We should also consider the work of Xi Xi, a Hong Kong-based poet, essayist, and writer of fiction. An interview that appeared in
Lit Hub noted that
"Most recently she published
The Teddy Bear Chronicles, a hybrid text in which her own handcrafted bears complement myths from our real and imagined past. It’s a dexterity of form reflected in her pen name (her real name is Zhang Yan). In Chinese
xi (西) means west. Doubled up, the characters 西西, resemble the legs of a girl playing hopscotch, she says. And this reflects one of Xi Xi’s most distinctive tools; her use of “childlike perception” to zoom in on liminal, overlooked characters and to glimpse grand historical narratives afresh..."
https://lithub.com/a-rare-conversation-with-the-cult-chinese-writer-xi-xi/
A selection of her poetry has been translated into English (
Not Written Words, 2018), of which several can be found here:
https://foundintranslation.me/2017/03/29/not-written-words/ works that recall Szymborska in both their playfullness and intellectual curiosity.
World Literature Today published "Black Silk Chicken" in its Spring 2019 issue:
https://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/2019/spring/black-silk-chicken-xi-xi.
