Award nominee at IU

The day Samrat Upadhyah, an IU creative writing professor, discovered he did not win the 2004 Kiriyama Prize, he sat at a desk in his Ballantine Hall office writing.\n"It's fine," he said. "I'm just honored to be even nominated." \nThe Kiriyama Prize is a $30,000 cash award split between a fiction and non-fiction writer "whose work will contribute to a greater understanding of and among the people and nations of the Pacific Rim and South Asia," according to the prize's Web site.\nUpadhyah's novel, "The Guru of Love," was one of five finalists in the fiction category. The winner, Shan Sa's "The Girl Who Played Go," was announced March 23. \nJeanine Cuevas, project coordinator for the Kiriyama Prize, said a nomination itself is very special.\n"I think in this eighth year of the prize, it is a meaningful distinction to be recognized as a finalist," Cuevas said. "When you see some of the books that were not chosen, many by very prominent authors, many prize-winners, you realize what a difficult job it must be for the judges to choose the top five. They are all excellent books in one way or another."\nCuevas said each judge is assigned to read every fifth book on the list. The judges then recommend notable books to each other. In February, the panels meet to decide the finalists. \n"I really think it is getting harder for the judges to choose the lists. It is amazing to see how the international participation has grown over the years," Cuevas said.\nThe other three books nominated were "Brick Lane," by Monica Ali, "My Life as a Fake," by Peter Carey; and "The Great Fire," by Shirley Hazzard. Because the books are submitted by their publishers, Upadhyah wasn't even aware of the nomination until a friend came across it online.\n"The Guru of Love" is Upadhyah's second published work. The first is a short story collection titled "Arresting God in Kathmandu" and contains mostly stories about couples struggling against their desires or coming together in marriage.\nThe nominated novel, published in January 2003, tells the tale of an unhappy math teacher in Kathmandu who becomes intensely attracted to a student, an unwed mother. The Kiriyama Prize Web site describes it as, "a meditation on the complexity of modern life and the difficulty that lies in reconciling the spiritual and the sensual." The book began as a short story, but evolved into a novel. \n"The struggles of the main character are played against what's happening on the larger campus of the country," Upadhyah said. "In (The Guru of Love), there's the political backdrop of the pro-democracy movement of 1990 and how that impresses upon what's happening."\nWhile insisting he is not a political writer, Upadhyah said he is concerned with the effect politics have on the everyman. \n"Even within stories with political flavors, I think you need to have individuals," he said. "I mean, what is politics? Politics is about how individuals are affected. That's where the drama is."\nUpadhyah, who grew up in Nepal, believes in writing from experience but said writing what you know can be tricky.\n"We can never go beyond the knowledge that we have accumulated in our lives," he said. "You cannot know things beyond your capability of knowing." \nHe said when young writers hear this catch phrase, they think they need to write directly from their own experience. \n"Their writing becomes about choosing a dress to go to the prom or something like that," Upadhyah said. "I think writers can do a lot more than that. Use your personal experience, but use your imagination to transcend that."\nUpadhyah attended a westernized Jesuit school in Nepal as a child. Because of the turbulent politics at the time, he found the education system extremely unorganized and decided to come to America. At the age of 21, he moved to Ohio and received his undergraduate, master's and Ph. D. at the College of Wooster, Ohio University and the University of Hawaii, respectively. He also spent a brief time working as a journalist and teacher in Saudi Arabia and Nepal.\nUpadhyah said he has always been interested in writing. \n"In the second grade, I used to compose poems in Nepali. I was an avid reader," he said. "I became the editor of my high school magazine. Because people were not submitting enough articles, I would write them myself, but put my friends' names on them."\nNow, as a professor, Upadhyah discusses his writing process in the classroom and occasionally workshops his own work in class. \n"I think it's important for students to see the instructor as a practitioner of the main craft that you're talking about," he said. \nUpadhyah describes himself as very dedicated to his writing. \n"To be a writer, you need to be dedicated to your craft. The writing field is extremely competitive," he said. "The only redemption is your dedication to your craft and your love for writing. If you are after it for fame or money, I mean, writers generally don't make that much money, but that's just the wrong path."\nUpadhyah will have a short story collection out by the end of 2005 and is currently working on a new novel.\n"Sitting down and writing every day is the hard part," he said. "I don't wait for inspiration. That's a myth." \n-- Contact staff writer Stacey Laskin at slaskin@indiana.edu.