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September 25,
2002
JUDGES NAME KIRIYAMA PRIZE FINALISTS
World-Renowned Novelists, Scholars, and Newcomers among
Finalists for US$30,000 Prize Honoring Work that Promotes
Understanding of the Pacific Rim and South Asia
SAN FRANCISCO - The judges for the 2002 Kiriyama
Prize made known today the five fiction finalists and the
five nonfiction finalists for the 7th annual award. The
two winners, who share equally a $30,000 prize, will be
announced on October 29.
Among the fiction finalists are Indonesian dissident Pramoedya
Ananta Toer and acclaimed Canadian novelist Rohinton
Mistry, along with first-time novelist Robert Barclay,
a graduate student at University of Hawai'i. The nonfiction
list includes a biography that is the culmination of noted
Japan scholar Donald Keene's lifetime research, as
well as a harrowing memoir written by Pascal Khoo Twee,
a 35-year-old Burmese immigrant to London, and recollections
by Victoria Armour-Hileman, a Catholic lay missioner
working among Buddhist monks in Thailand.
“In light of the cataclysmic events of this past year,
and with rumors of the war in the air, the need to recognize
and listen to voices of all kinds from around the world
has never been more imperative,” said Peter Coughlan,
administrator of the Prize. “It is in the true sprit
of our Pacific Rim Voices projects to understand and celebrate
these writers, and to make them known to audiences who might
otherwise have remained unaware of their work.”
Describing this year's entries as “an embarrassment
of riches,” Mr. Coughlan noted that the judges received
a record number of 363 submissions from around the world.
The Kiriyama Prize is awarded in recognition of outstanding
books that promote greater understanding of and among the
nations of the Pacific Rim (East and Southeast Asia, Australia,
the Pacific Islands, Canada, Mexico, the United States,
and the Pacific-bordering nations of Latin America) and
of the South Asian subcontinent. Books from anywhere in
the world are eligible, provided they are written or translated
into English, and relate to the nations of the Pacific Rim
or South Asia in a significant way.
The Kiriyama Prize was established in 1996 as an annual
award for a single outstanding book that encouraged greater
understanding among the peoples and nations of the Pacific
Rim. To acknowledge the diversity and quantity of books
entered for the Prize, both a fiction and nonfiction winner
have been awarded since 1999. Past winners have included
Alan Brown, Cheng Ch'ing-wen, Patricia Grace, Peter Hessler,
Michael David Kwan, Michael Ondaatje, Ruth L. Ozeki, and
Andrew X. Pham.
THE 2002 KIRIYAMA PRIZE FINALISTS
FICTION: Five finalists out of 152 eligible entries.
Red Poppies by Alai (Houghton Mifflin). Translated
by Howard Goldblatt and Sylvia Li-chun Lin. This witty first
novel by an ethnic Tibetan living in Sichuan, China, is
a complex political parable. Like the “idiot”
son, who is the novel's narrator and unlikely hero, Alai's
story echoes a legendary Tibetan wise man who “preferred
wisdom masked by stupidity.”
Melal: A Novel of the Pacific by Robert Barclay
(The University of Hawai'i Press). This debut novel
by a doctoral student is a gripping story and powerful social
commentary. Set in a marginalized indigenous community in
the Marshall Islands, which the US military used as nuclear
testing ground, Barclay traces the horrific and tragic results
suffered by native islanders. The author is a former resident
of Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands.
Family Matters by Rohinton Mistry (Knopf).
In this beautifully paced and elegantly crafted novel, the
acclaimed Canadian author tells a story of familial love
and obligation, political and personal corruption, and religious
complexity. In focusing on a Parsi family living in Bombay,
Mistry illustrates the universal in the particular. Mistry
was born in Bombay and immigrated to Canada in 1975. Family
Matters has also been chosen as a finalist for the 2002
Booker Prize.
The Girl From the Coast by Pramoedya Ananta Toer
(Hyperion East) Translated by Willem Samuels. Widely
considered Indonesia's greatest living novelist, Ananta
Toer's words were so feared by his government that he was
held as a political prisoner for over 17 years. This translation
marks the first time The Girl from the Coast—the
story of a poor village girl who is forced into a loveless
marriage with a wealthy politician in late 19th Century
Java—has been available in English.
Dirt Music by Tim Winton. (Scribner). A lucid
portrayal of three very different characters as they journey
to the Australian wilderness to escape and atone for their
pasts. In his seventh novel Winton, one of Australia's preeminent
writers, has created a vivid and powerful evocation of climate
and landscape, along with a garrulous chorus of supporting
characters. Dirt Music has also been chosen as a finalist
for the 2002 Booker Prize.
NONFICTION: Five finalists out of 211 eligible entries
Singing to the Dead: A Missioner's Life Among Refugees
From Burma by Victoria Armour-Hileman (University
of Georgia Press). The author, a relief worker since 1988,
chronicles her two years serving as a go-between for the
Mon Buddhist monks of Bangkok, and ministering to the tortured,
wounded, diseased and orphaned refugees from Burma. Hileman,
who never loses her sense of humor, is strikingly successful
in introducing the reader to those whom she served.
Korean Endgame: A Strategy for Reunification and US
Disengagement by Selig S. Harrison (Princeton
University Press). Harrison, the former Washington Post
Bureau Chief in Northeast Asia, offers the first authoritative
challenge to the long-standing US policy in South Korea.
This informative, comprehensive book argues that North Korea
is not—as many policy makers expect—about to collapse.
Emperor of Japan: Meiji and His World, 1852-1912 by
Donald Keene. (Columbia University Press). Keene's
masterful study of the critically important Meiji period
in modern Japanese history focuses for the first time on
the emperor himself and, with impeccable scholarship, he
traces how Japan was dramatically transformed during the
long reign of Meiji—from an isolated island nation
to one of the world's major powers. Keene is currently Shincho
Professor of Japanese Literature Emeritus at Columbia.
From the Land of Green Ghosts: A Burmese Odyssey by
Pascal Khoo Thwe (HarperCollins—forthcoming
U.S.). This is a haunting and poetic autobiography by a
35-year-old member of the oppressed Padaung minority community
in Burma. Now living in Britain, Pascal Khoo Thwe chronicles
his long, remarkable journey from guerilla fighter to freedom
and Cambridge University.
The Good Women of China: Hidden Voices by Xinran
(Pantheon/Random House). Translated by Esther Tyldesley.
Overcoming Chinese government censorship, Xinran succeeded
for eight years in hosting a call-in radio program in which
women shared with her the stories of their lives. The result—true
accounts of political and personal upheavals—is a vivid
and unforgettable portrait of what it means to be a woman
in modern China.
PRESS CONTACT
Jeannine Cuevas, Prize Manager
1 (415) 777-1628
manager@kiriyamaprize.org
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