Culture: Chinese writer wins leading literary prize in Canada

With Shenzheners, his first book in English (translated from the Chinese by Darryl Sterk), Xue Yiwei has been awarded the Diversity Prize of the 19th Blue Metropolis Montreal International Literary Festival. This is the first time the high-profile festival has awarded a prize to a Chinese writer, a landmark achievement especially as it was translated. Since its publication in September, Xue’s collection of stories, originally well-received in China, has drawn a great deal of attention from Canadian readers.