Li Juan (author)

Li Juan (Chinese: 李娟; born July 1979) is a Chinese essayist. Most of her works are centred around nomadic life in the Altay region of Xinjiang.

Biography

Li Juan was born in 1979 in Kuytun City, Xinjiang.^[1] Her parents were originally from Sichuan Province.^[2] She began to publish her writing in 1999 and has since published more than ten essay collections.^[3] Most of her works detail her personal experiences of the landscape and Kazakh nomads of Xinjiang's Altay region.^[1] Li was among the winners of the Seventh Lu Xun Literary Prize (2014–17).^[4] In a New York Times article, Eric Abrahamsen wrote that Li's career has taken a "wild path" and that she "may be as far outside of the system as Chinese writers are able to get and still publish".^[5]

Her memoir is the basis for To the Wonder.^[6]

Selected works

Nine Snows (2003)^[1]

My Altay (2010)^[1]

Corners of Altay (2010)^[1]

Travelling Through the Night: Please Sing Out Loud (2011)^[1]

Remember Little, Forget More (2017)^[2]

Translated works (English)

Distant Sunflower Fields (2021) translated by Christopher Payne^[7]

Winter Pasture: One Woman's Journey with China's Kazakh Herders (2021) translated by Jack Hargreaves and Yan Yan^[8]