Author Kiran Desai has been named among the finalists for the Kiriyama Prize for her Novel The Inheritance of Loss, which recently won her the prestigious Man Booker Prize. Desai is up for the 11th annual Kiriyama Prize, which carries $15,000 in prize money.

The Kiriyama Prize is awarded annually in recognition of outstanding books that promote greater understanding of and among the nations of the Pacific Rim and of South Asia.

Among the South Asian authors who have won the Kiriyama prize earlier are Rohinton Mistry (Family Matters, 2002) and Suketu Mehta (Maximum City, 2005).