2007 Kiriyama Prize for Fiction and Nonfiction Shortlist

THE SHORTLIST for the 2007 Kiriyama Prize for Fiction and Nonfiction has been announced with writers hailing from Canada, China, India, Japan, the United Kingdom and the U.S. Though eligible writers can be from anywhere in the world, books that are considered for the prize must be available in English and published in the U.S. or Canada. The annual Kiriyama Prize recognises and awards outstanding books that promote greater understanding of and among the nations of the Pacific Rim and of South Asia.

The 2007 Kiriyama Prize finalists are:

Fiction
1. The Inheritance of Loss / Kiran Desai (Grove Atlantic)
2. Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman / Haruki Murakami (trans. Philip Gabriel and Jay Rubin) (Alfred A. Knopf)
3. Stick Out Your Tongue / Ma Jian (trans. Flora Drew) (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
4. Certainty / Madeleine Thien (McClelland & Stewart, Canada; Little, Brown, U.S.)
5. Behold the Many / Lois-Ann Yamanaka (Farrar, Straus & Giroux/Picador)

Non-Fiction
1. The Haiku Apprentice / Abigail Friedman (Stone Bridge Press)
2. Blonde Indian: An Alaska Native Memoir / Ernestine Hayes (University of Arizona Press)
3. Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Fight Terrorism and Build Nations / Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin (Viking)
4. Tigers in Red Weather: A Quest for the Last Wild Tigers / Ruth Padel (Walker & Company)
5. Chinese Lessons: An American, His Classmates, and the Story of the New China / John Pomfret (Henry Holt)

The winners will be announced on March 30, 2007