I read about Wolf Totem review on Jackie of Farm Lane Book blog tonight and it pique my interest. For two reasons, first this story is set in Mongolia. Second, it is the prize winner of Man Asian Literary Prize 2007.
I knew Man Asian Literary exists, but I didn’t pay much attention to it. Now that I did, I find this could be a great place to discover budding Asian writers and also read more widely within the region of Asia, besides China, Japan and India.
Is it any wonder why I haven’t heard of it much, much earlier?
Because the Man Asian Literary Prize is founded only very recently, in 2007, and the award is given to the best novel by an Asian writer, either written in English or translated into English, and published in the previous calendar year. It is awarded to writers who are citizens or residents of one of the following 27 (out of 47) Asian countries: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, East Timor, India, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, North Korea, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, The Hong Kong or Macau SAR’s, The Maldives, The PRC of China, Vietnam.
The winning author is awarded USD 30,000 and the translator (if any) USD 5,000. Submissions are invited through publishers who are entitled to submit two novels by August 31 each year.
The Man Asian Literary Prize is sponsored by Man Group plc., as you know is the main sponsor of the Man Booker Prize.
Past Winners of Man Asian Literary Prize:
2009 The Boat to Redemption Su Tong, translated by Howard Goldblatt
2007 Wolf Totem Jiang Rong, translated by Howard Goldblatt (again!)
This March 2011, the winner of the Man Asian Literary Prize winner will be announced:
2010 Shortlist
The shortlist will be announced in February 2011.
2010 Longlist
- Bi Feiyu, Three Sisters
- Upamanyu Chatterjee, Way to Go
- Anosh Irani, Dahanu Road
- Manu Joseph, Serious Men
- Tabish Khair, The Thing About Thugs
- Sarita Mandanna, Tiger Hills
- Kenzaburo Oe, The Changeling
- Yoko Ogawa, Hotel Iris
- Usha K.R., Monkey-man
- Criselda Yabes, Below the Crying Mountain
On that list I have read The Changeling and Hotel Iris. If I hope to say that I have read every book in the prize winner list, this may be a short list to achieve!
I will be interested to see who win this year.
JoV's Book Pyramid 
I ve one of these three sisters ,which is on my tbr ,look forward to see who wins ,all the best stu
Posted by winstonsdad | January 21, 2011, 11:09 pmStu, did you? You have the Three sisters? I look forward to hear what you think about it!
Posted by JoV | January 22, 2011, 1:57 amThanks for the reminder, I’m really looking forward to reading these books too!
Posted by Chinoiseries | January 21, 2011, 11:14 pmhi Chinoiseries, Yes I put this up to remind myself too! I look forward to read all the winners in this list! 😉
Posted by JoV | January 22, 2011, 1:57 amMy sentimental favorite for 2010 is The Changeling by Kenzaburo Oe0I have not read it yet-i have been pondering Wolf Totem for a long time now
Posted by Mel u | January 22, 2011, 10:14 amMel, I didn’t quite like The Changeling, but do find it very refreshing read from Oe. Funny I only heard about Wolf Totem only yesterday. Better late than never!
Posted by JoV | January 22, 2011, 11:18 amI was going to write a very similar post to this one – perhaps I’ll wait until the 2010 winner is announced now 🙂
I have read all three winners now and will continue to follow this award – reading the winners and any from the long list that jump out at me. I think it is a very interesting prize as all the winners are very different in style and content. I look forward to seeing what you make of the books as I struggled with some aspects of all of them. Enjoy!
Posted by Jackie (Farm Lane Books) | January 22, 2011, 10:16 amJackie, thanks for introducing the book! Yes I will read all three soon. Asia is very diversified and writer from most parts of Asia don’t read English as first language. Oh if only I have more time to read…. but I will try to read them and come compare notes with you. it will be great if we write about Man Asian Literary Prize 2010 updates on both our blogs. 😉
Posted by JoV | January 22, 2011, 11:21 amNice post, Jo! I have been following the MAN Asian Literary prize since its inception, though, unfortunately, I haven’t read any of the books which have been nominated for the prize. I have read a little bit of ‘Wolf Totem’ though, and it is a wonderful book. I hope to read it from cover-to-cover soon. This prize started as an initiative to encourage new authors. So the initial prizes were offered only for unpublished books or for books newly translated into English (and the translations were not published). It has become a mainstream literary award now (only published books are eligible for the prize now). It is unfortunate in some ways, because it takes away the prospect of discovering a wonderful new writer by accident, who is not yet published. Typically the longlist has many books by Indian authors in it (there are six here!) but no Indian has won the prize till now. Manu Joseph’s ‘Serious Men’ has got some raving reviews in India this year and even won a literary prize. I would love to see how it fares here.
If you do get to read ‘Wolf Totem’ I would love to hear your thoughts on it 🙂
Posted by Vishy | January 23, 2011, 5:29 amVishy, yes I read about the new format. Good news and bad news I suppose. I think they probably think it’s up to publishers to discover new talent, and Man Literary Group to shortlist them and award the prize. That’s what I think.
There are so many published Indian authors isn’t it? I would love to see one of them win! and also no woman has yet win the prize, if you notice. 🙂
Posted by JoV | January 23, 2011, 10:58 amYes, no woman has won the prize till now. Like Barbara Streisand said when opening the envelope which contained the name of the winner of the ‘Best Director’ award during the Oscar ceremony last year – maybe the time has come now 🙂 I will back Yoko Ogawa 🙂
Posted by Vishy | January 24, 2011, 8:04 amVishy, I will back Ogawa too! 🙂
Posted by JoV | January 24, 2011, 12:35 pmOne of the judges of the prize is Malaysian-Australian author Hsu-Ming Teo 🙂
Posted by Vishy | January 24, 2011, 8:06 amVishy, really? Thanks for letting me know! I’ll check him out. 🙂
Posted by JoV | January 24, 2011, 12:36 pmOMG, the Tong book has such a fantastic cover (the Syjuco one as well), I’m drooling 🙂
I really don’t follow any awards, but I hadn’t even heard of this one. So glad you posted about it 🙂
Posted by Bina | January 23, 2011, 1:34 pmBina, lol I’m glad you got your eyes on the cover, I’m sure they are great read too. I have my hands tied this year maybe next year I’ll read all 4 (including the next winner) on the winner list. I’m interested in all of them! 🙂
Posted by JoV | January 23, 2011, 9:24 pmI heard of the prize from Jackie too. I’m very interested in the idea of the prize but all the winner books are SO THICK! Good for you for wanting to read them all. I’d be happy to wait and hear what you think of them first :D. Didn’t know it’s sponsored by the same Man Booker group (though the name should give it away). Interesting!
Posted by mee | January 23, 2011, 10:00 pmMee, I admit ‘Boat to Redemption’ at 480 pages and Wolf Totem at 544 pages are chunksters, but Illustrado looks manageable at 320 pages? Ok I’ll resolve to read all of them, got my hands tied this year, but maybe next! 😀
Posted by JoV | January 23, 2011, 10:14 pmThe complex nature of the Illustrado structure actually made it seem the longest to read. Wolf Totem was very easy to read and so felt much shorter than its length, but the answer is that none are short, easy reads 😦
Posted by Jackie (Farm Lane Books) | January 24, 2011, 8:05 amJackie, oh dear this is discouraging news. 😦 I’ll make sure I’m in the right mind set if I decide to read all of them.
Posted by JoV | January 24, 2011, 12:36 pmI have just read a review from a friend on Illustrado he loved it, and have had it on my list since I found it right before it was published…
Also I am going to check out some of the challenges you’ve entered here which I have not seen yet but look very interesting.
Now to nose around a bit more.
cheers Jo!
Posted by Shellie | January 26, 2011, 10:11 pmThanks for stopping by Shellie. A positive for Illutrado. Let me know when you finished the book, I’d like to hear what you think about it! 🙂
Posted by JoV | January 27, 2011, 8:43 amhi JoV – just wanted to say thank you to you and everyone else for such interesting comments re. Man Asia – past and present. I’ve read Illustrado which I really enjoyed – I think Syjuco really has his finger on a particular moneyed pulse. And I’ve read Road to Redemption too, which I also enjoyed but in a very different way. This year’s Man shortlist is being announced this week and am intrigued to see which on the list will make it. Am particularly intrigued by Usha K.R.’s Monkey-man – anyone read it?
Posted by Anna McNamee | February 14, 2011, 11:10 amThanks for dropping by Anna. No, I haven’t read the book. In fact I haven’t read any of the Man Asia literary prize winners’ books but I would like to read them all. I would be interested to find out who win this year!
Posted by JoV | February 14, 2011, 3:36 pm