Copper Canyon Press and Woody Creek Pictures have launched a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign for two projects that will celebrate the life and achievement of Red Pine, one of the most important translators of Chinese poetry and Buddhist texts in the literary world. 

“We’re setting out to bring forth an essential collection of Red Pine’s translations, along with a documentary of his extraordinary journey as a translator, that will bring the sublime works of master Chinese poets to thousands,” said Copper Canyon’s co-publisher George Knotek.

The goal is to raise $80,000 by June 1 to help complete the publication of the anthology, “Red Pine: Dancing with the Dead,” and the 2023 premiere of the documentary film, “Dancing with the Dead: The Life and Times of Red Pine.” The film was directed by Ward Serrill and produced by Rose Theatre owner Rocky Friedman.

“Red Pine” is the pen name for Bill Porter, who has written and translated more than 20 books. He is a best-selling author in China, with books about mountain hermits and travel narratives on visiting the graves of Chinese poets.

Red Pine is also an eccentric character and world-class raconteur with a storied past: His father was a bank robber, he flunked out of college, dropped out of graduate school, and spent years in a Buddhist monastery in Taiwan. He has traveled extensively through China, where he has produced more than a thousand radio programs for English-language stations in Taiwan and Hong Kong. 

As a translator, he has won fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation, as well as awards from PEN America and the American Literary Translators Association.

The Kickstarter campaign will help fund the hard costs of publishing Red Pine’s anthology, which includes editorial, printing, promotion, distribution, and especially paper costs, which have risen approximately
45 percent over the past year. The anthology will appear in Copper Canyon’s “Essential Poems” series.

The campaign will also fund the final stages of the documentary film’s production, which has been delayed by the pandemic.

Supporters of the campaign will have the opportunity to receive a variety of incentives, including an advance copy of the anthology, a digital download of the documentary film, a collector’s edition movie poster for the film, credits in the anthology and film, and a dinner and private reading with Red Pine.

Copper Canyon Press is a nonprofit publisher dedicated to poetry, with a catalog that includes books in dozens of languages by poets from around the world; Pulitzer Prize-winners, Nobel Laureates, and emerging poets alike.