Howard Goldblatt

Howard Goldblatt was a Research Professor of Chinese at the University of Notre Dame from 2002-2011 and is a translator of numerous works of contemporary Chinese (mainland China & Taiwan) fiction, including The Taste of Apples by Huang Chunming and The Execution of Mayor Yin by Chen Ruoxi. Goldblatt also translated works of Chinese novelist and 2012 Nobel Prize in Literature winner Mo Yan. Notably, his translation of six major novels and collections of stories by Mo Yan contributed to the Award granted without the knowledge of Chinese by the Committee members.

Goldblatt encountered Chinese for the first time as a young man, during his tour of duty with the US Navy, sent to military base in Taiwan at the beginning of the 1960s. He stayed there and studied at the Mandarin Center for two more years before returning to the US. He than enrolled at the Chinese language program of the San Francisco State University. Goldblatt received a B.A. from Long Beach State College, an M.A. from San Francisco State University in 1971, and a Ph.D. from Indiana University in 1974.