Simon Wickhamsmith teaches in the writing and Asian studies programs at Rutgers University. He is the translator of Tseveendorjin Oidov’s The End of the Dark Era (2015).
This excellent first collection of modern Mongolian stories offers a view of traditional concerns of nature and herding, as well as the dramatic changes wrought by communism, the pure market economy, and urbanization. Wickhamsmith's translations provide readers with wondrous fiction as well as exposure to Mongolian customs and landscapes. -- Morris Rossabi, author of <i>Modern Mongolia: From Khans to Commissars to Capitalists</i> Suncranes and Other Stories is an important collection of modern Mongolian writing. Deftly translated, it opens a door on a body of literature that reflects the lives and realities of Mongolia in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. -- Mark Bender, editor of <i>The Borderlands of Asia: Culture, Place, Poetry</i> Simon Wickhamsmith's masterful translations provide a unique window on how Mongolian writers have responded to events shaping the country over the last century-ranging from extreme communism to extreme capitalism-while also retaining a strong sense for enduring Mongolian traditions shaped by pastoral nomadism and a magnificent countryside. -- Jonathan S. Addleton, former U.S. ambassador to Mongolia