Singaporean author Jeremy Tiang (above) will be translating Hong Kong action star Jackie Chan's memoir into English.

The English edition of Never Grow Up, Only Get Older, which Chan co-wrote in Chinese with his close friend Zhu Mo in 2015, will be released in November by Gallery Books, an imprint of major publishing house Simon & Schuster.

The 64-year-old actor, whose films include the Police Story series, Rush Hour (1998) and Shanghai Noon (2000), opens up in the book about not just his death-defying moments on and off set, but also his childhood at the China Drama Academy, in which he was enrolled at the age of six, as well as his experiences as a husband and a father.

Tiang, 41, a New York-based writer and translator, said he received an e-mail from Chan's agent out of the blue asking if he was interested in working on the book.

"I didn't meet Jackie in person, but this book was written candidly and sincerely and I think I got to know him a bit by the end," he added.

"I'm glad English-speaking readers will be able to read this book for themselves as there are some great behind-the-scenes anecdotes and personal stories from him."

Tiang yesterday received his second Singapore Literature Prize nomination, for his 2017 novel, State Of Emergency, about leftist movements and political detentions in Singapore and Malaysia from the 1940s to the present day.