Only Connect: what the Saphira Prize means to me

So I made it: the new novel of Sarawak is finished. I submitted the unpublished manuscript to the Women in Publishing Society, Hong Kong, for consideration for the Saphira Prize 2012. On March 15, 2013, I was announced the winner of the Prize. My novel will be published in Hong Kong no later than March, 2014. 

 

Receiving a crystal trophy at the Announcement of the Winner of the Saphira Prize 2012

Receiving the Award is being able to tell my relatives in Sarawak, my father's birthplace, that the book I have been doing research for on previous trips to Sarawak is now completed, has received positive endorsement from the literary circle, and will be published in the coming year. It has been my dream to present to my father, now in his nineties, my published novel about his homeland, and to bring the book back to our extended family in Sarawak. That goal is now within reach. 

The best that has happened with the writing of this novel is my connection with my father's family, not by way of the Christmas card or letter we had been sending every year for forty some years, but rather, making four trips in the past seven years with my ever supportive husband Michael to Sarawak, feeling the warmth and welcome of my relatives there, forming true friendships, the camaraderie, the laughter, the meals shared, the hugs, the words of caring that come from the heart. As well, the sadness felt every time we left after a week's visit, and the tears shed with every death in the family. As I wrote this novel about migration, remembrance of ancestors, family values, and reconcilation, I was walking a parellel line in reuniting with my Sarawak family, making up for forty some lost years when our relationship was little more than annual Christmas cards and occasional communications. I have been blessed with unconditional support from my relatives in Sarawak as I roam my father's homeland in search of material for my book. My writing of the novel has come to mean rediscovering my family this slice of the globe, paying respects to the ancestors who had long migrated to Sarawak and built a life for themselves and their descendants through blood, sweat and tears, reconnecting with my present relations and with my paternal heritage. If only for this, the book will be a success. If only for this, I am grateful and blessed.