New judges and eligible countries announced for 2011 Man Asian Literary Prize

HONG KONG – Judges for the 2011 Man Asian Literary Prize were announced Friday with a BBC Special Correspondent, the author of Slumdog Millionaire and a Pulitzer Prize finalist, all set to judge the best of Asian fiction from 2011.

The three judges for the fifth annual Man Asian Literary Prize are:

Razia Iqbal

Razia Iqbal is a Special Correspondent for the British Broadcasting Corporation, having previously been the BBC Arts Correspondent reporting on a range of arts and culture stories from around the world. She currently presents the flagship news and current affairs programme, Newshour, for the BBC World Service. Since 2010 Ms. Iqbal has hosted the Talking Booksprogramme on the BBC News Channel, interviewing a range of authors including Sir Salman Rushdie, Hanif Kureishi and Ian McEwan, as well as serving on the Advisory Board of The Festival of Asian Literature in London.

Ms. Iqbal was born into a Punjabi family in Uganda, and graduated from the University of East Anglia in the UK. Razia Iqbal will be the Chair of Judges for the 2011 Man Asian Literary Prize.

Vikas Swarup

Vikas Swarup is an Indian diplomat and writer presently serving as India's Consul General in Osaka-Kobe, Japan. His debut novel, Q&A (2005), tells the story of how a penniless waiter in Mumbai becomes the biggest quiz show winner in history. The book has become an international bestseller and translated into over forty languages. The novel has adapted for the screen as Slumdog Millionaire, directed by Danny Boyle, which picked up eight Academy Awards including for Best Picture in 2009. His second novel Six Suspects (2008), also set in India, has been optioned for a film.

Vikas Swarup was born in Allahabad, India and joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1986.

Chang-rae Lee

Chang-rae Lee is the author of the novels Native Speaker (1995), A Gesture Life(1999), Aloft (2004), and most recently, The Surrendered, which was a 2011 Pulitzer Prize Finalist. His other awards and citations include the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award, the American Book Award, the Barnes & Noble Discover Award, ALA Notable Book of the Year Award, the Anisfield-Wolf Literary Award, the Gustavus Myers Outstanding Book Award, and the NAIBA Book Award for Fiction.

  

Chang-rae Lee was born in Seoul, Korea and emigrated to the United States when he was three. He was educated at Phillips Exeter Academy, Yale, and the University of Oregon. He is a Professor in the Lewis Center for the Arts at Princeton University, where he teaches creative writing.

Chair Judge Razia Iqbal said, “It's common for people involved in prize judging to talk about it being a privilege. And it is. Hundreds of thousands of novels are published every year. And writing is largely a solitary activity; once published, the reading experience can be a very private experience. Sharing the excitement of that private affair is something I am looking forward to immensely, with the Man Asian Literary Prize. It is a relatively young prize, but one which is already punching above its weight. And that is because it is opening worlds. It's not news to the region, but to the rest of the world, Asia is the new kid on the block. And I am very excited about sharing what my fellow judges, Vikas Swarup and Chang-rae Lee think about the stories coming from one of the most vibrant regions on the planet.”

The 2011 MALP longlist will be announced this October, the shortlist in January 2012 and the winner in March of that year.

New eligible countries

This year the Man Asian Literary Prize has increased the number of countries from which writers are eligible to enter. The new countries are Iran, Turkey, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, taking the total number of eligible Asian countries to 35.

Professor David Parker, Chair of the Board of Directors, said, "Our shift to published novels has given a huge boost to our aim of bringing global attention to the literature produced across the Asian region. In 2010 for the first time readers and reviewers took the opportunity to read and compare the Man Asian Literary Prize long and shortlisted books long before the winner was announced."

The winner of the 2010 MALP was Chinese writer Bi Feiyu for his novel, Three Sisters published by Telegram Books and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

As a result of winning the Man Asian Literary Prize, Three Sisters sold out in bookstores in Hong Kong and Beijing, with two thirds of sales from Telegram seen in South East Asia. The prize-winning book was reprinted by Telegram Books, and re-stocking orders were received from several large UK distributors, including Waterstones, Foyles and WHSmith Travel.

Ashley Biles, Sales Manager for Saqi Books on behalf of Telegram said, "For very good reasons booksellers like book prizes, readers do respond to such recommendations. Another advantage of prizes such as the MALP for Telegram and the author is that Bi Feiyu's reputation has been raised and I would expect shops to core stock both Three Sisters and Bi's first novel Moon Opera.”

Jenna Johnson of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, US publisher of Three Sisters noted a large uptake in media coverage commenting that,  “The award has been a wonderful way to get the word out even further about this fascinating book.”

Submissions for the 2011 Man Asian Literary Prize are now open. Online entry form at www.manasianliteraryprize.org