Pinoy author shortlisted in Asian literary prize for novel on OFWs

Filipino writer Jose "Butch" Dalisay Jr has been shortlisted this week by the judging panel for the inaugural Man Asian Literary Prize, the first regional prize for a work unpublished in English. The winner of the prize will be announced on November 10 at a ceremony in Hong Kong. The winner will receive $10,000 and can look forward to publication and wider recognition in the English-reading world. "The diverse and outstanding finalists for the Man Asian Literary Prize are a revelation of fiction today in Asia. With an entrancing psychic geography, they challenge readers to an exhilarating discovery of ethical and imaginary worlds," said Adrienne Clarkson, chair of the judges for the inaugural prize. The other shortlisted authors are Reeti Gadekar on India, Jiang Rong of China, Nu Nu Yi Inwa of Myanmar, and Xu Xi of Hong Kong. The Man Asian Literary Prize aims to recognise the best of new Asian literature and to bring it to the attention of the world literary community. A distinguished panel of judges selects a single work of fiction to be awarded the prize each year. Works submitted for consideration must not yet have been published in English, although they may have been published in other languages. The prize is jointly administered by representatives of the Man Hong Kong International Literary Festival, the University of Hong and the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and is sponsored by Man Group plc, a leading global financial services firm based in London. The Man Group also sponsors the annual Man Booker Prize and the biennial Man Booker International Prize. Both these prizes are awarded and administered by the Booker Prize Foundation. Dalisay is shortlisted for "Soledad’s Sister," a story about an overseas Filipino worker. "Soledad's Sister" begins when a casket arrives at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila, bearing the body of someone manifested as "Aurora V. Cabahug" – one among over 300 overseas workers who return as corpses at this airport every year. The real Aurora, however, is very much alive. Soledad’s Sister is due to be published by Anvil Publishing in early 2008. Dalisay was born in 1954. He writes in both English and Filipino and has published fifteen books of his stories, plays, and essays, with five of those books receiving the National Book Award from the Manila Critics Circle. He graduated from the University of the Philippines in 1984 (AB English, cum laude), and then received an MFA from the University of Michigan (1988) and a PhD in English from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (1991) on a Fulbright-Hays grant. Dalisay teaches English and Creative Writing as a full professor at the University of the Philippines. He has been a Hawthornden Castle, British Council, David Wong, and Rockefeller (Bellagio) fellow, and has lectured on Philippine culture and politics at the University of Michigan, University of Auckland, Australia National University, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, St. Norbert College, University of East Anglia, University of Rome, and the London School of Economics, among others. The judging panel for the 2007 Man Asian Literary Prize is composed of Adrienne Clarkson, former governor general of Canada (Chair); André Aciman, New York-based author and scholar, and Nicholas Jose, writer, scholar and former Cultural Counsellor at the Australian Embassy in China. GMANews.TV