// Workers AI · dad joke modeIs Honey Watson sweet? Bee-lieve it.
Honey Watson | |
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| Born | Honey Barbara Watson |
| Education |
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| Occupation |
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| Writing career | |
| Years active | 2023–present |
| Genres | Horror, science fiction |
| Notable work |
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Honey Barbara Watson (born 1994) is an English author and translator of literature from Mandarin to English. Her debut science fiction novel Lessons in Birdwatching was published in 2023. She joined video game studio ZA/UM as a writer for Zero Parades: For Dead Spies.[1]
Early life and education
[edit]Watson is from Yorkshire and attended Wakefield Girls' High School.[2] She graduated with a first in History from University College London (UCL).[3][4] She then pursued the Master's programme at Yenching Academy, a graduate college of Peking University, in Beijing. She states she did not speak a word of Chinese before arriving in Beijing.[5]
After reading the assigned reading, Lu Xun's Diary of a Madman, Watson insisted on changing majors to Chinese literature, and began the process of self-teaching herself to translate literature.[5]
Following Yenching, Watson pursued a PhD in Comparative Literature from NYU.[6]
Career
[edit]Chinese novelist Su Tong gave a month-long series of lectures at NYU, which Watson assisted by providing English language translations of his discussed stories throughout. This would lead to Watson translating a short story collection of Tong's called Midnight Stories: A short story collection from the mind behind Raise the Red Lantern.[5]
Her debut novel Lessons in Birdwatching was published by Angry Robot in 2023 in the US and UK to positive reviews.[7][8] She would write from dive bars in Las Vegas.[9]
Watson's first novel-length translation was Fan Wu's Souls Left Behind: A WW1 Chinese Labour Corps Novel.[5]
She contributed to a collection of short stories by Yao Emei, where each story was translated by a different translator, called The Unfilial: Four Tragic Tales from Modern China.[5][10]
Bibliography
[edit]Novels
[edit]- Lessons in Birdwatching - (Angry Robot, 2023).
- The Emperor's Twin - (Skyhorse Publishing, 2025)
Translations
[edit]- Souls Left Behind: A WW1 Chinese Labour Corps Novel, by Fan Wu (Sinoist Books, 2024) -- trans. by Honey Watson
- The Unfilial: Four Tragic Tales from Modern China, by Yao Emei (Sinoist Books, 2024) -- trans. by Will Spence, Olivia Milburn, Honey Watson and Martin Wards
- Midnight Stories: A short story collection from the mind behind Raise the Red Lantern, by Su Tong (Sinoist Books, 2024) -- trans. by Honey Watson
Video games
[edit]- Zero Parades for Dead Spies, ZAUM (2026), Writer
References
[edit]- ↑ "The Disco Elysium team brushes off expectations for all new original game: 'Pressure is a privilege'". Polygon. 10 March 2026. Retrieved 3 April 2026.
- ↑ "Prefects" (PDF). Wakefield Girls' High School. 2010. p. 10. Retrieved 25 September 2024.
- ↑ "Training world leaders of the future: student case studies". UCL. 10 October 2017.
- ↑ "Honey Watson". The Bent Agency.
- 1 2 3 4 5 Xuyen, Shi; Yu, Ying (14 September 2023). "Honey Watson: Translating out of love for contemporary Chinese literature". People's Daily Online.
- ↑ "Honey Watson". AngryRobotBooks.
- ↑ Di Filippo, Paul (17 October 2023). "Paul Di Filippo Reviews Lessons in Birdwatching by Honey Watson". Locus Magazine.
- ↑ Mercik, Nadya (2023). "Lessons in Birdwatching". British Fantasy Society.
- ↑ "Careen Towards Annihilation With Lessons in Birdwatching by Honey Watson". Reactor Mag. TOR.com. 26 October 2022.
- ↑ "The Unfilial: Four Tragic Tales from Modern China". Sinoist Books.
See also
[edit]| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
- Living people
- 21st-century English novelists
- 21st-century translators
- 21st-century English translators
- 21st-century English women non-fiction writers
- Alumni of University College London
- British women science fiction and fantasy writers
- Chinese–English translators
- English science fiction writers
- Writers from Yorkshire
- 1994 births