| Username |
Post |
| ashu |
Posted
on 02-Mar-04 09:47 PM
Hi all,
Our fellow Nepali Samrat Upadhyay -- who teaches creative writing at Indiana University and who's published two well-received books in the US -- has been named one of the five finalists of THE 2004 KIRIYAMA PRIZE (Fiction).
FICTION: Five finalists out of 200 eligible entries are:
Brick Lane
by Monica Ali (Random House, Australia; Transworld Publishers/Doubleday, UK; Simon & Schuster/Scribner, USA)
My Life as a Fake
by Peter Carey (Random House, Australia; Random House of Canada; Faber & Faber, UK; Alfred A. Knopf, USA)
The Great Fire
by Shirley Hazzard (Virago/Little Brown, UK; Farrar, Straus & Giroux, USA)
The Girl Who Played Go
by Shan Sa, translated by Adriana Hunter (Alfred A. Knopf,
USA; Chatto and Windus, UK)
The Guru of Love
by Samrat Upadhyay (Houghton Mifflin Company, USA)
**********
Let's wish Samrat all the best.
It's great to see fellow Nepalis doing well and better.
For complete details:
http://www.kiriyamaprize.org/pressroom/2004/pr_022304.html
oohi
ashu
ktm,nepal
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| mysterious gurl |
Posted
on 02-Mar-04 10:10 PM
Congratulation, Samrat dai for the great achievement!!
Read "Guru of love" twice and each time I was driven away by the memory of my home country .......
Will read again after some months to refresh myself......
All the best dai!
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| spark |
Posted
on 03-Mar-04 02:00 AM
My vote is for Samrat!
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| ou812 |
Posted
on 03-Mar-04 09:26 AM
Where can I get a copy of Samrat U's novels? Tried major bookstores, Borders, Waterstons etc. NADA
Anyone willing to lend me your copy? Will pay the postage, and I promise to return
Thank you :o)
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| SITARA |
Posted
on 03-Mar-04 10:17 AM
OU812:
After you, if you can send it to me...I will return it to the sender.
If not,
Can you wait....ummmm.... 5 months, matra? I could mail one for you (bought and packaged in Nepal) after I return to US.
;)
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| Poonte |
Posted
on 03-Mar-04 11:47 AM
Hey, OU 812 and SITZ...
I do have copies of both of Samrat's books. Let me know if you are serious about borrowing them. Knowing both of you very well, I can perhaps bet on you not celebrating Shiv Ratri with those books...ehehe...what the heck, Shiv ratri is already past anyway!
Let me know!
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| VincentBodega |
Posted
on 03-Mar-04 01:25 PM
I have a question for Samrat Sir.
Sir, why is it that each of his stories starts off in a normal naive enviornment and end up as some kinda sexual dilemma?
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| confused |
Posted
on 03-Mar-04 01:27 PM
All my Best WIshes To Samrat Upadhaya...and it is CERTAINALLY VERY VERY VERY GOOD THING to see such accomplishment by fellow nepali...
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| the other one |
Posted
on 03-Mar-04 01:51 PM
Congrats SU.
VB?, why? you mean to say the other way would be the way of the wise i.e. sexual Dillema to normal env.??
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| bhunte |
Posted
on 03-Mar-04 01:54 PM
Congratulation Samrat! Yesto po hunu parchha achievement bhaneko. Whole nepali and univ community here is proud of you!
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| OU812 |
Posted
on 03-Mar-04 01:57 PM
Thank you Sitara Ji, very thoughtful of you. I'll take Poo's offer and if i finish it within month, will forward it to you.
Poo am emailing you my addy. Postage don't apply to you :P. Will muaks in talloo do?? Har..de..har... har
You r a STAR, thank you.
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| LadyBug |
Posted
on 03-Mar-04 03:09 PM
That's awesome........I liked his first one (even though I heard grad students in TU back in Nepal did a boycott of the book). I would like to know from one of them - WHy?
I am in the middle of reading second one (finally oof)...and OU812, I did find it in borders.
you know they can order for you too, if you ask anybody in borders, i just found that out. if poonte won't keep his word in sending it to you that is......:)
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| ashu |
Posted
on 03-Mar-04 05:41 PM
Ladybug wrote:
"I heard grad students in TU back in Nepal did a boycott of [Arresting God in Kathmandu]"
Not quite.
But BOTH the book and the author were severely criticized by several Nepali professors and graduate students of English in Nepal for being "unrepresentative of Nepali society", as though they were the arbiters of what represents Nepali society and what does not.
Some other well-known authors in Nepal such as Dr. Tara Nath Sharma simply cannot understand just how the heck Samrat has achieved what he has achieved in the US.
And people like him, all "baristha sahitya-kaars", tend to be -- both in person and in print -- dismissive of Samrat and his works. I have talked to a few of these authors,
and my own impression is that most of these writers and authors are simply jealous
of SU's success. Nothing more. They appear to be so insecure that they have a hard time celebrating, even critically, the achievements of one of their compatriots.
And they can't digest the fact that SU came out of 'nowhere', so to speak, and
started earning BOTH money and fame, that too in America, by doing what he
loves most: writing fiction.
My good friend Anjan Shrestha at Educational Book House on Kantipath says that
so far he has sold 5000-plus copies of Samrat's first book, mostly to college-going or under-30 ko young Nepalis. Anjan, who comes from one ofthe old book-selling families
in Kathmandu, says that he has never seen an English book by any Nepali or non-Nepali flying off the shelf like this one. Anjan has been selling "Guru of Love" too.
I understand that talks are underway to have Samrat's books translated into Nepali language too.
BTW, after reading what author Anne Tyler said in an interview in The New York Times recently, I went out and bought (from Anjan) Monica Ali's book "Brick Lane" which is
also one of the nominees.
It's a smashingly good book, and would recommend it to all of you.
oohi
ashu
ktm,nepal
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| Lalupate*Joban |
Posted
on 03-Mar-04 07:45 PM
Monica Ali - that suave Bangaladesh-born British chick - will make waves.
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| qallu |
Posted
on 03-Mar-04 07:50 PM
Yes, congratulations to Samrat!!
It's so great to see his work being recognized. It is a pity that some folks don't see (or want to see) any merit in his writing. I agree with Ashu... it's bhyaguta ko khutta tanne bani in the case of most folks.
Though I had my moments of doubt, overall I lived Samrat's books. I liked the clarity, his facility and economy with words, and most of all, I greatly appreciated the authenticity of his story telling and how he refused to exoticize Nepal for a foren audience as accused by some. His characters were a bit two dimensional at times, but he is a good story teller and I was willingly go along for the most part.
About the sexual nature of his stories... at least they make for interesting reading! Fiction and writing don't have to be all politics, social commentary and just serious business... on second thoughts, sex IS serious business! :) Growing up with all that sexual repression - the shouldn'ts, couldn'ts, and don'ts, the thin veneer of modesty and propriety masking the very basic, very real going ons in peoples lives(sexual or otherwise), I appreciated Samrat's honesty.
Some still want to believe that Nepalis are different from other people and that Nepal is some sort of pristine, innocent place. Hello! Time to wake up and smell that chia!! The other fact is of course also that Samrat is an expat and many in Nepal maybe feel that the job of defining what is "Nepal and Nepali" is the rightful job of those living in Nepal and writing in Nepal... maybe.
Regardless, good going, Samrat!! Hope you are writing more and making money and also giving back
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| VincentBodega |
Posted
on 04-Mar-04 05:35 AM
Kina was my question that unclear? Ki I have to send my resume stating who all I know and where do they work and how often I interact with them to be able to make you all understand that I dont mean any criticism. I just have simple questions. Read it again if you care.
Why is that all his stories end in some kinda sexually frustrated modes?
Is it really that, as someone pointed out, its because he was/felt sexually reprived while growing that he needs to express it his fictions?
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| qallu |
Posted
on 04-Mar-04 06:05 AM
I don't particularly care, even if it was a criticism, but since the question is posed... I wasn't addressing my post to any one person's particular post. Just generally responding the what folks have said on the topic here and in earlier threads about his writing.
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| LadyBug |
Posted
on 22-Mar-04 08:17 AM
Ashu dai,
Thanks for clarifying.....don't know why, but nepali psyche - particularly in nepal, esp right now - looks really gloomy - blame it on the politics of nepal and nepali. [me inlcluded.]
hell it depresses me here, even though i am away - so sympathize with them well there.
however - we do need to look at things with a new light and think positive, no matter what the hell is going on. should i add - act positive too? there should be a negative flush running in everyone's brain. that way be will be thinking more clearly often. [me included.]
agree with most points qallu brought upon.
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