WINNERS OF THE 2006 KIRIYAMA PRIZE ANNOUNCED

Books that expand the usual definition of “Pacific Rim” take top honors

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SAN FRANCISCO (March 28, 2006) - Pacific Rim Voices announces today the two winners for the 10th annual Kiriyama Prize. Luis Alberto Urrea’s novel, The Hummingbird’s Daughter, is this year's fiction winner along with The Reindeer People: Living with Animals and Spirits in Siberia by Piers Vitebsky for nonfiction. 

Urrea and Vitebsky will share equally the US $30,000 cash prize awarded by Pacific Rim Voices, an independent non-profit organization dedicated to celebrating literature that contributes to greater understanding of and among the peoples and nations of the Pacific Rim and South Asia.

“The phrase ‘Pacific Rim’ is associated in many people’s minds simply with the Asia Pacific region, but the Pacific Ocean reaches many other shores,” commented Dr. Peter J. Coughlan, administrator of the Kiriyama Prize.  “We are delighted that, especially in this 10th anniversary year of the Prize, our judges have chosen as winners two outstanding books about parts of the Pacific Rim that our previous winners had not touched upon.  These works by Luis Alberto Urrea and Piers Vitebsky are just the kind of literary achievement we would most like to encourage.  They entertain, they inform, they move our hearts and minds.  These two books bring us a deeper sense of our common humanity, and that is above all what we hope for in books recognized by the Kiriyama Prize.”

The family stories Luis Alberto Urrea heard as a child about his great aunt, a Yaqui faith-healer who was known as the Saint of Cabora, inspired the author to spend several years finding out more about her and finally to present her story through fiction. Urrea’s powerful, winning novel, The Hummingbird’s Daughter (Little, Brown & Co.), is the result.  A keen ability to bring the characters and story alive, together with a creative rendering of history, make Urrea’s book captivating and enlightening in its portrayal of revolutionary Mexico.

There has been critical acclaim for Urrea’s accomplishment. The San Francisco Chronicle: “Urrea has created a classic, a tribute and love song to the colorful and vibrant heart of all things Mexican.”  The Washington Post: “Pure delight. . . . A luminous novel. . . . A book of surprises and savory treasures,” and The Chicago Sun-Times described it as “a literary gem that does more than soar.  It transcends.”

Gail Tsukiyama, novelist and chair of the fiction judges’ panel, is of the same mind: “Urrea masterfully brings together a story of a clash of cultures, politics and corruption, religion and spirituality, love and heartbreak to a dazzling effect."

Born in Tijuana, Mexico to a Mexican father and an American mother, Luis Alberto Urrea has published 11 books, which encompass all the major genres. He is the recipient of numerous awards including the Lannan Literary Award and American Book Award, and he is a member of the Latino Literature Hall of Fame.  Urrea’s 2004 nonfiction bestseller The Devil’s Highway was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction and for the Kiriyama Prize in nonfiction last year.  He is the first author ever to be recognized by the Kiriyama Prize judges for works of both fiction and nonfiction.  Urrea currently teaches creative writing at the University of Illinois in Chicago.  His website is at: www.luisurrea.com.

In The Reindeer People: Living with Animals and Spirits in Siberia (Houghton Mifflin), nonfiction winner Piers Vitebsky draws on extensive fieldwork, spanning nearly two decades living with his family among the Eveny nomads in northeast Siberia, the coldest place on earth to be inhabited by human beings.  Vitebsky’s work combines empathy and depth with keen observation. His book is peopled by a colorful cast of characters he has come to know well — a cast which includes not only human herders, shamans, and Communist Party bosses, but also dogs, bears, and some very individualistic reindeer, including one the Eveny named Bill Clinton and another they named Margaret Thatcher (in accordance with their “personalities”).  The Reindeer People is a moving tribute to the Siberian native peoples’ spirit, endurance, resourcefulness, and sense of humor in the face of a brutal environment; of effectively brutal attempts over the years by the Soviets to control and settle them; and of rapid social, political, economic, and environmental changes that now threaten the way of life of indigenous people in many parts of the world.

Reviews have been unstinting in their praise:

"If you read one book this year... read Reindeer People. This book will grip and enlighten anyone... Like the reindeer themselves, this book takes wing."

— Daily Telegraph

"Like all the finest anthropology, this book entertains readers with descriptions of an alien culture, only to imbue them with a deeper sense of common humanity."

— The Times of London

“Vitebsky is a personable, knowledgeable, and passionate guide, portraying with unabashed feeling the people he has come to know, vividly describing the magnificently resilient reindeer and the luminous beauty of the land, offering amusing accounts of his adventures, and, most memorably, illuminating the ‘vast field of shared consciousness’ that enfolds land, animals, and humans.”

­— Booklist

Piers Vitebsky was the first westerner to live with Siberian reindeer people since the Russian revolution and is head of anthropology and Russian northern studies at the Scott Polar Research Institute at the University of Cambridge.  In a quote that reflects the reverent tone of the book, Vitebsky said, "My reward for living with the Eveny has been ... a glimpse into the enduring relationship between a community of humans and a species put on Earth to nourish them with its flesh, insulate them with its fur and exalt them with its soul."

Chair of the nonfiction jury, former US ambassador James Rosenthal, comments: “This year's nonfiction entries were stunning in their breadth, depth, and literary quality.  Our shortlist of five books, for example, ranged from Siberia to Japan to Canada to Cambodia.  It included engaging personal memoirs, probing social and cultural studies, and even an excellent true environmental mystery tale.  All are very readable and should have wide appeal.”

Full reviews of the winners and other finalists for this year’s Kiriyama Prize, together with an informative conversation with the chairs of the fiction and nonfiction panels, can be found on the Prize’s sister website, waterbridgereview.org.

Photos of the authors and book jacket images of this year's finalists and winners are available upon request from Stella Connell at stella@theconnellagency.com.

Along with the eventual winner, the 2006 Kiriyama Prize fiction finalists included The Lizard Cage by Karen Connelly, (Random House Canada, and forthcoming from Nan A. Talese/Doubleday in the US), The Hungry Tide by Amitav Ghosh (Houghton Mifflin), A Thousand Years of Good Prayers by Yiyun Li (Random House US), and The Train to Lo Wu by Jess Row (The Dial Press).

The other 2006 finalists for nonfiction were Isami’s House by Gail Lee Bernstein (University of California Press), A Man with No Talents by Oyama Shiro translated by Edward Fowler (Cornell University Press) Crossing Three Wildernesses by U Sam Oeur (Coffee House Press), and The Golden Spruce by John Vaillant (W.W. Norton US and Knopf Canada).

Also today, Pacific Rim Voices announced the 2006 Kiriyama Prize Notable List of ? titles.  The list of 8 fiction and 13 nonfiction works follows the body of this release.

Past finalists and winners of the Kiriyama Prize include Sherman Alexie, Nadeem Aslam, Monica Ali, Alan Brown, Peter Carey, Cheng Ch'ing-wen, Inga Clendinnen, Carlos Fuentes, Patricia Grace, Shirley Hazzard, Ha Jin, Suketu Mehta, Rohinton Mistry, Michael Ondaatje, Ruth Ozeki, Andrew X. Pham, Elena Poniatowska, Shan Sa, Kerri Sakamoto, Pascal Khoo Thwe, Pramoedya Ananta Toer, Simon Winchester, and Tim Winton.

The Kiriyama Prize is awarded annually in recognition of outstanding books that promote greater understanding of and among the nations of the Pacific Rim and of South Asia.  Authors from anywhere in the world are eligible, provided that their work is written in English or translated into English, and that it relates to the nations of the Pacific Rim or South Asia in a significant way.

Pacific Rim Voices, sponsor of the Kiriyama Prize, continues to develop a family of projects celebrating literature from and about the Pacific Rim and South Asia.  For more information about the Prize and the 2006 winners and finalists, visit www.kiriyamaprize.org or contact Jeannine Stronach, Prize Manager, at 415/777-1628 or via email admin@kiriyamaprize.org.

The judges for this year’s fiction Prize were Gail Tsukiyama (chair), Lauro Flores, Maxine Hong Kingston, James D. Houston, and Gish Jen.  The nonfiction panelists were James Rosenthal (chair), Janet Brown, Sally Ito, Laura Lent, and Kathryn Olney.

2006 Kiriyama Prize Notable Books

Fiction

The Time in Between by David Bergen (McClelland & Stewart, Canada; Random House US)

No Man's Land by Duong Thu Huong, translated by Nina McPherson and Phan Huy Duong (Hyperion East)

The Guest by Hwang Sok-Yong (Seven Stories Press)

Green Rice by Lam Thi My Da, translated by Martha Collins and Thuy Dinh (Curbstone Press)

Shalimar the Clown by Salman Rushdie (Random House US)

A Dream in Polar Fog by Yuri Rytkheu, translated by Ilona Yazhbin Chavasse (Archipelago Books)

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See (Random House US)

The Turning by Tim Winton (Scribner)

Nonfiction

Rogue Regime: Kim Jong Il and the Looming Threat of North Korea by Jasper Becker (Oxford University Press, USA)

Mao: The Unknown Story by Jung Chang and Jon Halliday (Alfred A. Knopf)

The Art of Gaman: Arts & Crafts from the Japanese American Internment Camps 1942-1946 by Delphone Hirasuna with photographs by Terry Heffernan (Ten Speed Press)

Perfume Dreams by Andrew Lam (Heyday Books)

Lucky Child: A Daughter of Cambodia Reunites with the Sister She Left Behind by Luong Ung (HarperCollins USA)

Beyond the Age of Innocence: Rebuilding Trust Between America and the World by Kishore Mahbubani (Perseus Book Group)

Japanland: A Year in Search of Wa by Karin Muller (Rodale Books)

Woolf in Ceylon by Christopher Ondaatje (HarperCollins Canada)

The Ganges: Along Sacred Waters by Aldo Pavan (Thames & Hudson USA)

The Argumentative Indian: Writings on Indian History, Culture and Identity by Amertya Sen (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

In the Wake of the Jomon: Stone Age Mariners and a Voyage Across the Pacific by Jon Turk (McGraw Hill)

Where Mountains Are Nameless: Passion and Politics in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge by Jonathan Waterman (W.W. Norton)

A Crack in the Edge of the World: America and the Great California Earthquake of 1906 by Simon Winchester (HarperCollins USA)

(end of release)

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