Thursday, November 16, 2006

Reckoning Nepal

Forgive me for writing again on Nepali English writers. But, things are appearing really nice for the writers from Nepal. To paraphrase Salman Rushdie: Nepal Writes Back! Looks like English language writers have finally come of the age.

After Samrat Upadhyay was longlisted for an Irish prize; Manjushree could not make it to Lettre Ullyses, it's Ravi Thapaliya of Echoes of Pain who is vying fot another Irish prize.

The staggering longlist has a who's who of contemporary English writing. Guardian writes:

The 2007 International Impac Dublin Award - the most eclectic and unpredictable, as well as the richest, of the world's literary awards - has announced its longlist. As usual, the range is breathtaking. From Leila Aboulela to Zoran Zivkovic, the 138-strong list ranges over the entire alphabet, as well as across genres, nations and languages. Books in translation make up 28 of the titles, with 15 languages covered - not altogether surprising given that the nominations for the longlist come from a staggering 169 libraries from 129 cities in 49 countries.

Big men and women of letters such as Salman Rushdie, South Africans JM Coetzee, Nadine Gordimer, and Canadian poet Margaret Atwood et al have made it to the longlist. Most of these writers have either bagged Nobel or the Man Booker.

Guardian Unlimited's Michelle Pauli says on Ravi:

Where else would you come across a first novel from a Kathmandu author, Echoes of Pain by Ravi Thapaliya, (nominated by the national library of Nepal)?

Thapaliya who currently lives in Melbourne, Australia is nominated by his publisher Sajha Prakashan. Best of luck Raviji!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

let's hope these guys (not only guys, these learned authors) grab prize this time. Unfortunately, I have not had any oppourtunity of reading their (Nepalese Authors' English works) works yet. In India, I tried to buy Manjushree's Book but yet have not been so able. Let's hope they do well.

Anonymous said...

Dont be sluggish buddy ! update ur blogs..........