Dr. William Gatherer serves as a Lecturer in Chinese translation and MATI Program Convenor within the School of Languages and Cultures at the University of Queensland. He earned a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) from the School of Oriental and African Studies at University College London and a Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Queensland in 2014, with his doctoral thesis titled 'Reading Ma Yuan’s metafiction: a narratological analysis of “Xugou” and “Gangdisi de youhuo”.' Before pursuing academia full-time, Gatherer worked at the British Embassy in Beijing. In addition to his teaching and research roles, he is a NAATI-accredited professional translator and a practicing commercial translator specializing in Chinese medical research into English.

Gatherer's research specializations include Chinese translation studies, literary translation, and literary theory, with a primary focus on the metafiction of Chinese author Ma Yuan (馬原), post-postmodernism, self-reflexivity in translations, contemporary Chinese literature, and eco-consciousness in the Anthropocene. His major publication is the monograph Ma Yuan: The Chinese Avant-Garde, Metafiction, and Post-Postmodernism (Lexington Books, 2021). Key works also encompass the book chapter 'Transferring the self-reflexive function: translation of Chinese metafictions' (Routledge, 2021), journal articles such as 'Death, memory, and narrative: a textual analysis of Ma Yuan's metafictional novella "Old Death"' (Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews, 2016), 'Translating Ma Yuan’s metafiction: an analysis of the loss of self-reflexivity in Herbert Batt’s translation of “The spell of the Gangdise Mountains”' (Translation Quarterly, 2018), and 'The Khampa Encampment' co-authored and translated with Ma Yuan (Exchanges: Journal of Literary Translation, 2020). He has delivered papers at conferences including the Chinese Studies Association of Australia 19th Biennial Conference (2025), Joint East Asian Studies Conference (2024), and British Association of Chinese Studies (2023). Gatherer received a research fellowship from the Ministry of Culture of the People's Republic of China and participated in the Visiting Program for Young Sinologists 2017, contributing to advancements in understanding Chinese avant-garde literature and translation challenges.

Professional Email: w.gatherer@research.uq.edu.au