Bruce graduated from the
University of Cambridge in 2010 with a
Bachelor's degree in Chinese, focusing on contemporary Chinese literature. She began working as a translator in Taiwan, translating subtitles and screenplays into English. In 2015, she was a joint winner with Michael Day of the inaugural
Bai Meigui Translation Prize for her translation of
Dorothy Tse's short story
Chicken (鸡). In 2016 she was a recipient of the
American Literary Translators Association's Emerging Translator Mentorship for a Singaporean language. Since then, she has translated a number of works by writers including
Xu Xiaobin,
Ho Sok Fong,
Can Xue,
Patigül,
Xie Ding, and
Yeng Pway Ngon. Her translation of Ho's short story collection
Lake Like a Mirror was shortlisted for the
Warwick Prize for Women in Translation in 2020. Bruce's other translations of Tse's work have been published in numerous journals; in 2019 they were awarded the 2019
Academy of American Poets Poems in Translation Prize for
Cloth Birds, an author and translator residency at the Leeds Centre for Chinese Writing in 2020. Her translation of
Can Xue's novella,
Mystery Train, was published by Sublunary Editions in 2022. That same year, Bruce was awarded a
PEN/Heim Translation Fund Grant for the publication of Tse's first novel,
, which was published by
Fitzcarraldo Editions in 2023. == Selected bibliography ==