Hawai'i author a finalist for Kiriyama honor

By Wanda A. Adams
Advertiser Book Editor

Honolulu novelist Robert Barclay first heard his book was a finalist for the prestigious Kiriyama Prize when a literary agent called him Wednesday morning, asking if he was looking for representation. The $30,000 prize honors books that promote understanding of the Pacific Rim and South Asia. Winners in fiction and nonfiction categories will be announced Oct. 29.

Barclay's "Melal," the gritty story of a family in the Marshall Islands, is among five fiction finalists. It was selected from a pool of 152 eligible nominees that Kiriyama Prize administrator Peter Coughlan called "an embarrassment of riches."

Barclay, a doctoral candidate who teaches English literature at the University of Hawai'i and is at work on his third novel (the second is in the publishing pipeline), said he was "thrilled, of course, and thrilled for 'Melal' in a parental sort of way, maybe in the way a father is proud when his son steps up to the plate in a big game. ... Being selected a finalist is a big win all by itself."

He is in prestigious company, joining two 2002 Booker Prize finalists, Canadian novelist Rohinton Mistry and Australian Tim Winton; a recipient of China's Mao Dun Prize, Alai; and Indonesian dissident Pramoedya Ananta Toer.