Jonathan Chaves

He published the first books in English or any Western language on such masters as Mei Yaochen 梅堯臣 (1002–60); Yang Wanli 楊萬里 (1127–1206); Yuan Hongdao 袁宏道 (1568–1610); the painter Wu Li 吳歷(1632–1718; as a poet); and Zhang Ji 張籍 (c.766-c.830).

Eliot Weinberger, in his book 19 Ways of Looking at Wang Wei, cites Chaves among the 4 best scholar-translators of Chinese poetry in English,[1] placing him with translators Burton Watson, A.C. Graham and Arthur Waley.

He is the 2014 recipient of the American Literary Translators Association's Lucien Stryk Prize for his book Every Rock a Universe: The Yellow Mountains and Chinese Travel Writing.

[4] He has also published original poetry, both in modernist style and in neo-formalist metrical forms with rhyme, in such literary magazines as IRONWOOD, 19 (1982, pp.

In 2023 he published a book of his poems, "Surfing the Torrent," Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock Resource Publications.