12th annual Kiriyama Prize
NEW YORK (AP) - April 1, 2008 The award is given for "literature that contributes to greater
understanding of and among the peoples and nations of the Pacific
Rim and South Asia."
New Zealand author Lloyd Jones was honored in fiction for
"Mister Pip," in which a student on a war-torn South Pacific
island escapes in her mind to Dickens' 19th century London. The
nonfiction prize went to Julia Whitty's "The Fragile Edge," a
report on people who live by the water in the South Pacific and a
celebration of the water itself.
Jones and Whitty each will receive $30,000.
The Kiriyama is sponsored by the nonprofit Pacific Rim Voices.
Previous winners include Michael Ondaatje and Rohinton Mistry.
