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Pacific Rim Voices (PRV) has its origins in the United States and Japan. Dr. Peter Coughlan approached the Reverend Seiyu Kiriyama, founder and president of the Agon Shu Buddhist denomination in Japan, with a proposal: to create an entity that would contribute to understanding and peace, with a particular focus on the Pacific Rim and South Asia. The Reverend Kiriyama responded generously to this suggestion, and in 1993 a nonprofit organization, now titled Pacific Rim Voices, was established in California.
PRV's inaugural project was the Kiriyama Prize, an annual book award that is given in recognition of one fiction and one nonfiction book that will create greater understanding of and among the peoples and nations of the Pacific Rim and South Asia. The Prize was launched in 1996 and has since become widely known. Originally housed within the University of San Francisco Center for the Pacific Rim, the Prize now has its own offices. However, close collaboration between the two organizations continues. The executive director of the USF Center, Dr. Barbara Bundy, is still closely involved with PRV as the chair of its Council of Advisors.
PRV has developed two other related Internet-based programs since the launch of the Kiriyama Prize. The first, an online literary magazine called WaterBridge Review, came into being as a partner site to the Prize, celebrating and promoting “the world of books” from and relating to the Pacific Rim and South Asia and seeking to make voices from and about that vast region known and heard. It complements the Kiriyama Prize not only by offering in-depth coverage of the books chosen by the Prize judges each year, but also by covering books not published in North America. The second project, PaperTigers, is a website that focuses on literature about the Pacific Rim and South Asia for young readers – a vitally important audience when it comes to establishing a foundation for greater intercultural understanding. PaperTigers promotes literacy. It aims to make young readers hungry readers. It highlights the richness of multicultural literature for children and young adults, sparks curiosity among young readers about the world around them, and encourages young people to continue their literary adventures throughout their lives.
Pacific Rim Voices continues to pursue its original aims and seeks grants and sponsorship that will allow it to develop its programs and projects further in the coming years.
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