2 Pinoys in shortlist of Man Asian Literary Prize

MANILA, Philippines – Filipino fiction writers Alfred Yuson and Miguel Syjuco are among the five authors who made it to the shortlist of the 2008 Man Asian Literary Prize, the leading regional prize for unpublished novels in English. The others are Yu Hua of China and Kavery Nambisan and Siddharth Dhavant Shangvi, both of India. The five works for which the writers were chosen from a list of 21 are: • The Music Child by Yuson • Ilustrado by Syjuco • The Story that Must Not be Told by Nambisan • Lost Flamingoes of Bombay by Shanghvi • Brothers by Yu ”Reading the short-listed books, I was struck, above all, by their passionate engagement with contemporary realities in India, China, and Philippines," Adrienne Clarkson, chair of the panel of judges for the prize, said. "They are primarily concerned, as literary novels must be, with the fate of the individual, but they do not exclude or reduce to a mere backdrop the tumultuous changes in Asian societies." The winner of the prize will be announced on November 12 at a ceremony in Hong Kong. The prize is $10,000, and the novel will also be published. A translator, if any, of the winning work will also get $3,000. The judging panel members are Nicholas Jose, writer, scholar, and former Cultural Counsellor at the Australian Embassy in China, and Pankaj Mishra, acclaimed Indian writer. The Man Asian Literary Prize was established in 2006 to bring greater worldwide attention to Asian writers and their works. The inaugural prize was awarded in November 2007 to Jiang Rong for Wolf Totem, which was published in English to great acclaim in early 2008. Several short and long-listed works of the 2007 prize have since been published. Man Group Plc is the sponsor of the Man Asian Literary Prize, in cooperation with Asian Literary Prize Ltd. Man Group also supports a variety of other programmes as well as charities aimed at furthering literature and literacy, including the Man Hong Kong International Literary Festival, a 10-day event that attracts authors from around the world and thousands of attendees. Man Group also sponsors the annual Man Booker Prize and the biannual Man Booker International Prize, in conjunction with the Booker Foundation. - GMANews.TV