Commonwealth Writers' Prize + Man Asian rules changed

Commonealth Writers Prize: shortlist for regional winners has been announced. I'm happy for Albert Wendt in the South East Asia and Pacific region. He's a Samoan writers who also works and writes in New Zealand. I read a couple of hi short stories and they were really good. When I have time, I will browse the web looking for plots and interesting books...

Africa
The shortlisted writers for Africa's Best Book are:
Trespass by Dawn Garisch (South Africa)
The Double Crown by Marié Heese (South Africa)
The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Nigeria)
Eyo by Abidemi Sanusi (Nigeria)
Tsamma Season by Rosemund Handler (South Africa)
Refuge by Andrew Brown (South Africa)
Kings of the Water by Mark Behr (South Africa)

The shortlisted writers for Africa's Best First Book are:
I Do Not Come to You by Chance by Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani (Nigeria)
The Shape of Him by Gill Schierhout (South Africa)
The Shadow of a Smile by Kachi Ozumba (Nigeria)
Come Sunday by Isla Morley (South Africa)
Sleepers Wake by Alistair Morgan (South Africa)
Jelly Dog Days by Erica Emdon (South Africa)
Harmattan Rain by Aysha Harunna Attah (Ghana)

Caribbean and Canada
The shortlisted writers or the Caribbean and Canada Best Book are:
The Winter Vault by Anne Michaels (Canada)
February by Lisa Moore (Canada)
Euphoria by Connie Gault (Canada)
Goya's Dog by Damian Tarnopolsky (Canada)
Galore by Michael Crummey (Canada)
The Golden Mean by Annabel Lyon (Canada)

The shortlisted writers for the Caribbean and Canada Best First Book are:
Under this Unbroken Sky by Shandi Mitchell (Canada)
Daniel O'Thunder by Ian Weir (Canada)
The Island Quintet: Five Stories by Raymond Ramcharitar (Trinidad)
Diary of Interrupted Days by Dragan Todorovic (Canada)
The Briss by Michael Tregebov (Canada)
Amphibian by Carla Gunn (Canada)


South Asia and Europe
The shortlisted writers for South Asia and Europe Best Book are:
Solo by Rana Dasgupta (Britain)
For Pepper and Christ: A Novel by Keki Daruwalla (India)
The Beijing of Possibilities by Jonathan Tel (Britain)
Heartland by Anthony Catwright (Britain)
Another Gulmohar Tree by Aamer Hussein (Pakistan)
The Immortals by Amit Chaudhuri (India)

The shortlisted writers for South Asia and Europe Best First Book are:
The Hungry Ghosts by Anne Berry (Britain)
Arzee the Dwarf by Chandrahas Choudhury (India)
In Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin (Pakistan)
Among Thieves by Mez Packer (Britain)
An Equal Stillness by Francesca Kay (Britain)
Tail of the Blue Bird by Nii Parkes (Britain)


South East Asia and Pacific
The shortlisted writers for South East Asia and Pacific Best Book are:
Summertime by J.M Coetzee (Australia)
A Good Land by Nada Awar Jarrar (Australia)
The Adventures of Vela by Albert Wendt (Samoa)
Singularity by Charlotte Grimshaw (New Zealand)
The People's Train by Thomas Keneally (Australia)
Parrot and Oliver in America by Peter Carey (Australia)

The shortlisted writers for South East Asia and Pacific Best First Book are:
The Ice Age by Kirsten Reed (Australia)
After the fire, a still small voice by Evie Wyld (Australia)
Look Who's Morphing by Tom Cho (Australia)
Document Z by Andrew Croome (Australia)
Come Inside by Glenys Osborne (Australia)
Siddon Rock by Glenda Guest (Australia)


Do yo remember the Man Asian Literary Prize? I wrote about it a few times. It’s supposed to help English-speaking readers to discovers Asian literature, promoting books unpublished in English, which means that they might have written in another language, let’s say Chinese or Thai.
Great thing, except that now the rules have changed. A blogger friend from Malaysia, Sharon of Bibliobibuli, wrote about it with more details. Well, to sum it up now the prize is opened only to novels first published in English in 2010… so forget about those countries whose literature you wanted to get your hands to. No more Vietnam or Myanmar, Sharon says.

Commonwealth Writers' Prize - Regional Winners

The Regional Winners for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize have been announced yesterday. Here they are:

Best Book
Mandla Langa (South Africa) The Lost Colours of the Chameleon
Marina Endicott (Canada) Good to a Fault
Jhumpa Lahiri (United Kingdom) Unaccustomed Earth
Christos Tsiolkas (Australia) The Slap

Best First Book
Uwem Akpan (Nigeria) Say You're One of Them
Joan Thomas (Canada) Reading By Lightning
Mohammed Hanif (Pakistan) A Case of Exploding Mangoes
Mo Zhi Hong (New Zealand) The Year of The Shanghai Shark

I was right about Jhumpa Lahiri winning over Salman Rushdie, Mohammed Hanif and Uwem Akpan, but I didn't expect Aravind Adiga not to win (he was nominated in two categories!). It proves that the Commonwealth Writers' Prize it's independent from the Booker Prize.

Commonwealth Writers' Prize 2009 - Shortlist

The shortlist for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize 2009 has been announced and we will know the eight regional winners in a few days.
Now, I would like to comment on the prize and on the shortlist. Four years ago Amitav Ghosh (the writer of, among others, Sea of Poppies, shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and on my TBR list), withdrew from the competition criticizing the fact that only books written in English can enter the competion, thus ignoring books written in the vernacular languages. Salman Rushdie even wrote an angry essay called "Commonwealth Literature Does Not Exist", where he argues that literature is not an expression of nationality. As a matter of fact, looking at this shortlist, it is difficult to label writers. For what reason do you label The White Tiger as an Australian book and put him in the first section, instead of the second? Even though Adiga has dual citizenship, Indian and Australian, The White Tiger is an Indian book, no matter what you say. And what about Jhumpa Lahiri (writer of The Namesake)? She considers herself an American and that should be it. But then she could not enter the competition, so here you go, let's label her as an English writer (she might have English citizenship because she was born in London, even though she grew up in the States).

Best Book Award: South East Asia and the South Pacific
Aravind Adiga “Between the Assassinations” (India/Australia)
Helen Garner “The Spare Room “ (Australia)
Joan London “The Good Parents” (Australia)
Paula Morris “Forbidden Cities” (New Zealand)
Christos Tsiolkas “The Slap” (Australia)
Tim Winton “Breath” (Australia)

Best First Book Award: South East Asia and the South Pacific
Aravind Adiga “The White Tiger” (Australia)
Nam Le “The Boat” (Australia)
Mo Zhi Hong “The Year of the Shanghai Shark” (NZ)
Bridget Van der Zijpp “Misconduct” (NZ)
Preeta Samarasan “Evening is the Whole Day” (Malaysia)
Ashley Sievwright “The Shallow End Clouds of Magellan” (Australia)

Best Book Award : Europe and South Asia
Chris Cleave “The Other Hand” (UK)
Shashi Deshpande “The Country of Deceit” (India)
Philip Hensher “The Northern Clemency” (UK)
Jhumpa Lahiri “Unaccustomed Earth” (UK)
David Lodge “Deaf Sentence” (UK)
Salman Rushdie “The Enchantress of Florence” (UK)

Best First Book Award: Europe and South Asia
Sulaiman Addonia “The Consequences of Love” (UK)
Daniel Clay “Broken” UK
Joe Dunthorne “Submarine” (UK)
Mohammed Hanif “A Case of Exploding Mangoes” (Pakistan)
Murzaban F. Shroff “Breathless in Bombay” (India)

Best Book Award: Canada and the Caribbean
Marina Endicott “Good to a Fault” (Canada)
Kenneth J Harvey “Blackstrap Hawco” (Canada)
Nino Ricci “The Origin of Species (Canada)
Jacob Ross “Pynter Bender” (Grenada)
Jaspreet Singh “Chef” (Canada)
Fred Stenson “The Great Karoo” (Canada)

Best First Book Award: Canada and the Caribbean
Theanna Bischoff “Cleavage” (Canada)
Mark Blagrave “Silver Salts” (Canada)
Craig Boyko “Blackouts” (Canada)
Nila Gupta “The Sherpa and other Fictions” (Canada)
Pasha Malla “The Withdrawal Method” (Canada)
Joan Thomas “Reading By Lightning” (Canada)
Padma Viswanathan “The Toss of a Lemon” (Canada)

Best Book Award: Africa
Damon Galgut "The Imposter" (South Africa)
Tim Keegan "My Life with the Duvals" (South Africa)
Mandla Langa "The Lost Colours of the Chameleon" (South Africa)
Sindiwe Magona "Beauty’s Gift" (South Africa)
Zoë Wicomb "The One That Got Away" (South Africa)

Best First Book Award: Africa
Uwem Akpan "Say You‘re One of Them" (Nigeria)
Jane Bennett "Porcupine" (South Africa)
Jassy Mackenzie "Random Violence" (South Africa)
Chris Marnewick "Shepherds and Butchers" (South Africa)
Sue Rabie "Boston Snowplough" (South Africa)
Megan Voysey-Braig "Till We Can Keep an Animal" (South Africa)

My prediction: Aravind Adiga only for The White Tiger, Jhumpa Lahiri over Salman Rushdie, A Case of Exploding Mangoes (Pakistan's long-awaited literary revenge over India) and Say You're One of Them for Africa's best first book (I haven't read it but it was on recommended books at Waterstone's, so it means it's got to be good).