Ouyang Yu, now based in Melbourne, came to Australia in early 1991 and has published over 60 books of poetry, fiction, non-fiction, literary translation and literary criticism in the English and Chinese languages. He also edits Australia’s only Chinese literary journal, Otherland. His noted books include his award-winning novels The Eastern Slope Chronicle (2002) and The English Class (2010), his collections of poetry Songs of the Last Chinese Poet (1997) and New and Selected Poems (2004), his translations in Chinese, The Female Eunuch (1991), The Ancestor Game (1996) and The Man Who Loved Children (1998), his book of literary criticism, Chinese in Australian Fiction: 1888–1988 (2008), and his musings on Chinese and English words, On the Smell of an Oily Rag (2008).
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'While more conventional writers elegised or exulted over the final years of the twentieth century, Ouyang Yu shows characters simply, adamantly, living them. Loose: A wild history is provocative, searingly witty, and above all elegantly structured. It is one of the most honest and most compelling books produced in recent years.' - Nicholas Birns, editor, Antipodes
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'Sometimes I can't decide whether Ouyang Yu is a crazy genius or just crazy. I'm prepared to roll the dice and say he's both. Loose is a masterpiece of eccentric, angry comedy, reminiscent of Sterne and Celine, but honestly it's not like anything else. It had me laughing in (English-speaking) Chinese. When the world wakes up to this guy, I want an invitation to the party.' - Malcolm Knox
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'Abrasive, self-obsessed and opinionated, Ouyang is as wild a poet as any of Roberto Bolano's savage detectives and very good company.' - Age
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'Based on the works of the Nobel Prize winning authors that I've read, I think that there are three authors writing in Australia today whose work the Nobel Prize Committee should know about. They are Castro, Gerald Murnane and Ouyang Yu.' - Lisa Hill, ANZLitlovers
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'Loose is fun, quirky, sparky … a book of ideas. 4 stars.' - Misterhobgoblin literary blog