The Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book Prize has been awarded every year since 1996. It promotes books that will contribute to greater understanding and cooperation among the peoples and nations of the Pacific Rim. The Prize is worth US$30,000. Half of the cash award is given to the author of the winning fiction title, and half is given to the author of the winning nonfiction title.
2007 (Fiction)
Review
"A warning to new readers of Haruki Murakami: You will become addicted . . . [His] newest collection is as enigmatic and sublime as ever." Jenna Krajeski, San Francisco Chronicle (read more)
2007 (Nonfiction)
Review
"'[B]y delivering what his country will not, Mortenson is 'fighting the war on terror the way I think it should be conducted,' [coauthor] Relin writes. This inspiring, adventure-filled book makes that case admirably." Kirkus Reviews (read more)
2006 (Fiction)
Review
"The Hummingbird's Daughter breathes with life, populated with multiple, complex and genuinely individual characters.... [A] classic, a tribute and love song to the colorful and vibrant heart of all things Mexican." The San Francisco Chronicle (read more)
2006 (Nonfiction)
Synopsis
In this acclaimed work, the anthropologist Piers Vitebsky offers a unique account of the Eveny, nomads who live in intimate partnership with an extraordinary animal. For centuries reindeer have provided the Eveny with food, fur, transport, and spiritual sustenance, enabling them to survive in the world's coldest inhabited region, the Siberian taiga... (read more)
2005 (Fiction)
Review
"Aslam reveals–artfully and heartbreakingly–a psychology at war with itself . . . His prose is richly atmospheric, his tone engagingly introspective." Akash Kapur, New York Times Book Review (read more)
2005 (Nonfiction)
Publisher Comments
A native of Bombay, Suketu Mehta gives us an insider’s view of this stunning metropolis. He approaches the city from unexpected angles, taking us into the criminal underworld of rival Muslim and Hindu gangs; following the life of a bar dancer raised amid poverty and abuse; opening the door into the inner sanctums of Bollywood; and delving into the stories of the countless villagers who come in search of a better life and end up living on the sidewalks... (read more)
2004 (Fiction)
Review
"Spare prose adorned with images that linger in the mind... In this elegant translation...the dreamlike, mesmerizing alternation of voices stands in uneasy contrast to the operatic violence of the plot." Janice P. Nimura, New York Times Book Review (read more)
2004 (Nonfiction)
Publisher Comments
In January 1788, the First Fleet arrived in New South Wales, Australia and a thousand British men and women encountered the people who would be their new neighbors. Dancing with Strangers tells the story of what happened between the first British settlers of Australia and these Aborigines... (read more)
2003 (No Awards)
2002 (Fiction)
Review
"The reader is moved, even to tears, by these rites of passage among characters we have lived with long enough to feel as family....The exercise of compassion, by the writer and then by the reader, remains one of the novel's chief duties and complex pleasures." John Updike, The New Yorker (read more)
2002 (Nonfiction)
Publisher Comments
In 1988, Dr. John Casey, a professor visiting Burma, meets a waiter in Mandalay with a passion for the works of James Joyce, and the encounter changes both their lives. (read more)
2001 (Fiction)
Synopsis
This rich and dramatic novel by one of New Zealand's finest writers, presents a powerful picture of Maori in modern times. (read more)
2001 (Nonfiction)
Publisher Comments
In the heart of China's Sichuan province, tucked away amid the terraced hills of the Yangtze River valley, lies the remote town of Fuling. Like many other small cities in this vast and ever-evolving country... (read more)
2000 (Fiction)
Review
"It is virtually flawless, with impeccable regional details, startlingly original characters and a compelling literary plot that borders on the thriller. Ondaatje's stunning achievement is to produce an indelible novel of dangerous beauty." USA Today (read more)
2000 (Nonfiction)
Synopsis
Young David, son of his father's Swiss second wife, has been brought up first by servants and then by an English step-mother. The Japanese invasion destroys the Eurasian world of privilege in which he lives. His father serves in the pro-Japanese government while secretly, perilously, working for the Resistance. David, sent away to school, is taunted as a half-caste by the now openly xenophobic Chinese... (read more)
1999 (Fiction)
Review
"This collection of simple stories, written in simple language yet rich with vivid details, presents a gallery of portraits of disorientation, distortion, and frustration." New York Times Book Review (read more)
1999 (Nonfiction)
Synopsis
The award-winning Catfish and Mandala is the poignant, lyrical tale of an American odyssey--a solo bicycle voyage around the Pacific Rim to Vietnam made by a young Vietnamese-American man in pursuit of both his adopted homeland and his forsaken fatherland. (read more)
From 1996 to 1998, only one winner was selected per year:
1998 My
Year of Meats by Ruth L. Ozeki
1997 Japan:
A Reinterpretation by Patrick Smith
1996 Audrey
Hepburn's Neck by Alan Brown
