Zhang Wei is a contemporary writer and Chairman of the Writers Association of Shandong Province. He was born in Longkou in 1956. In 1975, he began publishing his works. His Collected Works of Zhang Wei, published in 48 volumes, has been translated into English, Japanese, French, Korean, German, Serbian, Spanish, and Swiss languages.
He has written 20 novels, including The Ancient Ship, September's Fable, Songs from the Forest, Another Province, On the Plateau, and The Single Pharmacist. The Ancient Ship and several of his other works were selected among the “Bainian Baizhong Youxiu Zhongguo Wenxue Tushu” (“100 Most Extraordinary Chinese Literary Works in a Century”), the “Top 100 Chinese-language Novels of the 20th Century” by the Chinese New Literature Series, and the “World’s Top 10 Chinese-language Novels” by Yazhou Zhoukan.
His works have received special awards and have been nominated for major literary honors such as the National Outstanding Novel Award, the Maodun Literature Award, and the China Writer Publisher Group Award during the eighth period of China’s Five-Year Development Plan.
His young adult literary works, including Life on the Peninsula, The Young Boy and the Sea, and Looking for the King of Fishing, received an enthusiastic response and earned 20 award nominations, including the Five One Project Award and Best Books of China 2015.