China scribe to be translated

CHINESE AUTHOR CAN XUE's work is going to be made available in English, I heard today. The author of strange, Kafka-esque novellas, she has been writing since she changed career in 1983 from tailor to novelist. Yale University has set up a fund to translate authors into English, and Can Xue, 54, has heard she is going to be one of the first beneficiaries. Her book "Five Flavor Grove" will appear in the series, to be launched in 2008, with Umberto Eco and Orhan Pamuk as consulting editors. Incidentally, her real name is Deng Xiao-Hua. Pseudonym "Can Xue" means Slush, as in "dirty snow".