Shortlist for Australian-Asia Literary Award

Back in April, I blogged about the inaugral Western Australian Premier's Australia-Asia Literary Award, for which Nury Vittachi was named one of the judges. We all gave a little cheer for a prize which would perhaps be a much needed platform for fiction from this part of the world.

Now the shortlist for this "the richest literary award in Australia and Asia" has been announced:

The Lost Dog by Australian author Michelle de Kretser

Blood Kin by Australian and South African citizen Ceridwen Dovey

The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Pakistani and UK citizen Mohsin Hamid

Orpheus Lost by US-based Australian author Janette Turner Hospital and

Complete Stories by Australian David Malouf.

I missed announcing the longlist earlier, I'm afraid, but you can find it on the award website.

(Am perplexed though that Mohsin Hamid's book could still be considered as it was published more than a year before the longlist came out, surely?)

The Literary Saloon is upset that :

... J.M.Coetzee's Diary of a Bad Year didn't make the cut; neither did the only other longlisted title we had under review, Murakami Haruki's After Dark. ... And we repeat once again: this prize is about as 'Asian' as ... well, something that's only Asian to a very limited extent: as it does not allow submissions from so many Asian nations it is surely completely misleading for it to call itself in any way an 'Asian' prize.

Perth Now seemed rather upset (justifiably, I think) that the state was footing the bill for an award :

... despite the absence of any local contestants or judges.

The award is open to works written by authors resident in Australia or Asia, or which are set primarily in Australia or an Asian country. The award this year drew 111 entries from across the world. (At least one from Malaysia.)

The winner will be announced on November 21 in Perth.