Interview: R.F. Kuang on ‘Babel’: “I think it’s really right for an environment to form really close but flawed relationships.”
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The author discusses her award-winning historical fantasy Babel, awarded Blackwell’s Bookshops Book of the Year.
In this interview, award-winning author R.F. Kuang talks about her award-winning historical fantasy Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators Revolution. Grappling with student revolutions, colonial resistance, and the use of language and translation as the dominating tool of the British empire, Babel has been said to be a thematic response to The Secret History and a tonal retort to Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. Published in 2022, it debuted at the first spot on The New York Times Best Seller list, won Blackwell’s Books of the Year for Fiction, and also won the 2022 Nebula Award for Best Novel.
“R.F. Kuang has written a masterpiece,” said author Rebecca Roanhorse. “Through a meticulously researched and a wholly impressive deep dive into linguistics and the politics of language and translation, Kuang weaves a story that is part love-hate letter to academia, part scathing indictment of the colonial enterprise, and all fiery revolution.”
In the video interview below, Kuang is joined by bookseller Miles Moran as they discuss Babel, which was awarded Blackwell’s Bookshops Book of the Year for 2022.
“I feel like every fantasy novelist who comes through Oxford has to write their Oxford novel—and this is mine.”
Rebecca Kuang is the #1 New York Times bestselling and Hugo, Nebula, Locus, and World Fantasy Award nominated author of the blockbuster Asian myth military fantasy Poppy War trilogy and the publishing world satire Yellowface.
Kuang’s awards include the Compton Crook Award, the Crawford Award, and the 2020 Astounding Award for Best New Writer. A Marshall Scholar, translator, and with an MPhil in Chinese Studies from Cambridge and an MSc in Contemporary Chinese Studies from Oxford, Kuang is now pursuing a PhD in East Asian Languages and Literatures at Yale.
More about R.F. Kuang online:
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Further reading online
Rebecca F Kuang: ‘Who has the right to tell a story? It’s the wrong question to ask’ (Guardian)
R.F. Kuang on White Paranoia and the Pitfalls of Identity Politics (Interview Magazine)
R.F. Kuang likes to raise questions that bother her—ones she hopes bother her readers too (New York Times)
R.F. Kuang’s New Book Babel Decolonizes Dark Academia (Oprah Daily)
Falling for Language, and Translation as Destruction: R.F. Kuang’s Babel (Tor.com)
Rebecca F Kuang rejects idea authors should not write about other races (Guardian)
Fantasy author R.F. Kuang’s new novel makes magic out of what is lost in translation (Boston Globe)
The books that shaped me: Rebecca F. Kuang (Good Housekeeping)
10 Minutes With...best-selling author R. F. Kuang (VIP Magazine)
Translation As a Tool of Power: An Interview with R.F. Kuang (PopMatters)
Profile: Rebecca Kuang, Author Of The Poppy War Series (NPR)
How a Georgetown Student Published Her Epic Fantasy Debut—Before She Turned 22 (Washington City Paper)
HarperCollins signs two titles from Babel and Yellowface star Kuang (Bookseller)
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