Shih-Li KOW makes it to the Frank O'Connor Prize Shortlist

MALAYSIAN short-story writer Shih-Li Kow has made it to the shortlist of the 2009 Frank O’Connor International Short Story Prize with her first collection, Ripples and Other Stories (Silverfish Books, 2008). [Last year, Singaporean Wena Poon was longlisted for the same prize for her first collection of stories, Lions in Winter (MPH Group Publishing, 2007).] This is indeed a wonderful achievement for Malaysian and Singaporean literature in English. The Frank O’Connor is of course the world’s richest award for a collection of short stories. Previous winners of this prestigious prize include Yiyun Li, Haruki Murakami, Miranda July and Jhumpa Lahiri.

Others on the shortlist include Petina Gappah for her début collection, An Elegy for Easterly (Faber & Faber, 2009); Charlotte Grimshaw for her second collection, Singularity (Vintage New Zealand, 2009); Philip O Ceallaigh for his second collection, The Pleasant Light of Day (Penguin Ireland, 2009); and Wells Tower for Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned (Farrar, Straus & Giroux/Granta UK, 2009); and Simon Van Booy for Love Begins in Winter (HarperCollins US, 2009).

Casualties from the longlist include Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Mary Gaitskill, Kazuo Ishiguro, Sana Krasikov, James Lasdun and Ali Smith.

The winner of the 2009 prize will be announced on September 20, 2009