September 25, 2002

JUDGES NAME 2002 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 book. 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 Kiriyama Prize is a Pacific Rim Voices project. Visit www.pacificrimvoices.org for more information.

THE 2002 KIRIYAMA PRIZE FINALISTS

FICTION: Five finalists out of 152 eligible entries.
Red Poppies by Alai (Houghton Mifflin, USA; Penguin Books Australia). 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." (Red Poppies has already won the highest literary award in China, the Mao Dun Prize.)

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 (McClelland & Stewart, Canada; Faber & Faber, UK; Knopf, USA). 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 shortlisted for the 2002 Man Booker Prize.)

The Girl From the Coast by Pramoedya Ananta Toer (Hyperion East, USA; Bookwise International, distributor, Australia) 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. (Pan MacMillan, Australia; Picador, UK; Simon & Schuster, US). 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 is also a finalist for the 2002 Man 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 serves.

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 UK; HarperCollins US [forthcoming]). 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 (Random House, Canada; Chatto & Windus, UK; Pantheon, US). 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.

For more information about the Kiriyama Prize and the 2002 finalists, visit http://www.kiriyamaprize.org, or call Jeannine Cuevas, Prize Manager, at 415/777-1628.

PRESS CONTACT
Jeannine Cuevas, Prize Manager
1 (415) 777-1628
manager@kiriyamaprize.org

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