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Samrat Upadhyay
Mr. Samrat Upadhyay, (Director-Creative Writing, Indiana University), is the first Nepali-born fiction writer writing in English to be published in the West. We are honored to have him join our group to help needy citizens of his birth country. We consider his work to have successfully brought out the inner social issues of Nepali communities that do not surface easily. As an honorary member, Mr. Upadhyay will be helping COMMITTED in outreach and good-will activities for the benefit of underrepresented Nepali communities.
His first book, the short story collection ARRESTING GOD IN KATHMANDU has been translated into French and Greek and was the recipient of a Whiting Writers' Award, given annually by the Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation to emerging poets and fiction writers who display "exceptional talent and promise." ARRESTING GOD IN KATHMANDU was also a selection in the Fall 2001 Barnes & Noble Great Writers Program. Upadhyay's stories have been read live on National Public Radio and published widely.
Upadhyay's second book, the novel THE GURU OF LOVE, was published in January 2003 and given starred reviews in both Publishers Weekly and The Library Journal and named a New York Times Notable Book of the Year 2003.
Upadhyay's recent story collection, THE ROYAL GHOSTS, has been called "stories of breathtaking lucidity" by Booklist. The Los Angeles Times marks him as "among the smoothest and most noiseless of contemporary writers," and The Indiana Express calls the book "highly entertaining" and Upadhyay "a major writer-in-the-making." THE ROYAL GHOSTS won the 2007 Asian American Literary Award and the Society of Midwest Authors Award in Fiction.
Matthew Handley
Mr. Matthew Handley, a Washington DC based lawyer (Cohen, Milstein, Hausfeld & Toll), is a part of COMMITTED as an honorary member. His membership to the organization is based on his proven record of passionately helping underrepresented Nepali communities. He victoriously fought for the families of twelve Nepali persons misled and ruthlessly killed in Iraq and delivered relief to the tormented family members. Mr. Matthew Handley was recently recognized by the U.S. Ambassador to Nepal and the Prime Minister of Nepal (G.P. Koirala) for his work.
He attended law school at the University of Texas and graduated with honors in 2002. He has been involved in international civil and human rights actions, including representation of a class of Indian residents who suffered from ground water pollution and represented disability groups against a nationwide builder for failing to design and build accessible apartments.
In his pro bono work, Mr. Handley represents several detainees at the U.S. Naval base in Guantanamo Bay. He currently serves as an associate trustee of the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs and is also on the advisory board of a non-profit group called global playground, an organization which promotes education in developing countries.
Mr. Handley is also a 1997 Graduate of Princeton University in Civil and Environmental Engineering. He served in Nepal as a rural construction engineer (volunteer) for the Peace Corps. |
