Lin King facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Lin King
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| 金翎 | |
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King in 2024
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| Born | December 6, 1993 New York, U.S.
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| Education | Princeton University (BA) Columbia University (MFA) |
| Occupation | Writer, translator |
| Awards | Freeman Award National Book Award for Translated Literature International Booker Prize |
Lin King (Chinese: 金翎; pinyin: Jīn Líng) was born on December 6, 1993. She is a talented writer and translator from both Taiwan and the United States. In 2024, Lin King and writer Yang Shuang-zi won the National Book Award for Translated Literature for their English translation of a book called Taiwan Travelogue. They later won the prestigious International Booker Prize for the same book in 2026.
Contents
Lin King's Early Life and School
Lin King was born in New York, U.S. Her parents are Taiwanese American. Both her parents, Gene K. King and Erin C. Shih, worked as architects in New York City for many years.
When Lin King was just one year old, her family moved to Taiwan. They settled in the capital city, Taipei. Lin King grew up in Taiwan after a time of big changes in the country. She is a citizen of both Taiwan and the United States.
Lin King is very good at languages. She speaks Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, and English fluently. She also knows some Taiwanese Hokkien.
For high school, Lin King attended the Taipei American School in Taiwan. She graduated from there in 2012. After finishing high school, she returned to the U.S. to study at Princeton University.
While at Princeton, she wrote for the student newspaper, The Daily Princetonian. In 2016, she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Princeton. She studied English literature, creative writing, and East Asian studies. Later, in 2022, she earned a Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.) from Columbia University. This advanced degree was in fiction writing and literary translation.
Lin King's Journey as a Writer and Translator
Lin King's own stories, written in English, have appeared in many magazines. Some of these include Joyland and Boston Review.
Early Writing Success
In 2018, Lin King received a special award for new writers. It was the PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers. She won it for her short story called "Appetite," which was published in a magazine called SLICE. This story was also included in The PEN America Best Debut Short Stories that same year.
Translating The Boy from Clearwater
In 2023, Lin King released an English translation of a book titled The Boy from Clearwater: Book 1. The original book (Chinese: 來自清水的孩子) was written by Yu Pei-Yun and Zhou Jian-Xin. King worked with the book's text in Taiwanese, Mandarin Chinese, and Japanese to create the English version.
A book review from Booklist praised her work. They called her a "gifted polyglot," which means she knows and uses many languages. The review said she skillfully translated the different languages from the original book. The Boy from Clearwater: Book 1 won a Freeman Award in 2023. The second book in the series, The Boy from Clearwater: Book 2, also won this award in 2024.
The Story of Taiwan Travelogue
While studying at Columbia University, Lin King began working on Taiwan Travelogue. This book was published in 2024 by Graywolf Press. Lin King first met the author, Yang Shuang-zi, at the Asian American Writers' Workshop. King had translated a part of another novel by Yang.
Yang Shuang-zi then asked Lin King to read Taiwan Travelogue in Mandarin Chinese. She wanted King to think about translating it into English. Lin King then suggested the English translation to many publishers. Finally, Graywolf Press decided to publish it. At Graywolf Press, King worked with Yuka Igarashi to make the book special. They made it a "meta-novel," which is a special kind of novel that often talks about itself or the process of writing.
Major Awards for Taiwan Travelogue
In 2024, Lin King and Yang Shuang-zi won the National Book Award for Translated Literature for Taiwan Travelogue. This was a huge honor for their English translation.
The next year, in 2025, King and Yang received another award. It was the Baifang Schell Book Prize for Outstanding Literature Translated from Chinese Language. This prize was given by the Asia Society's China Books Review. Also in 2025, King's translation won the American Literary Translators Association's First Translation Prize. It was also a finalist for the National Translation Award.
In 2026, Lin King's translation of Taiwan Travelogue made history. It became the first book translated from Mandarin Chinese to win the International Booker Prize. This is one of the most important awards for translated books in the world.
