AUTHOR Nu Nu Yi Inwa’s book Smile as They Bow was short-listed earlier this year for the inaugural Man Asian Literary Prize, for unpublished English-language works by Asian writers. She attended the awards ceremony in Hong Kong on November 10, where the prize was given to China’s Jiang Rong for his novel Wolf Totem . Meanwhile, Hyperion publishing house in New York has agreed to publish Nu Nu Yi Inwa’s book at a later date. The Myanmar Times met with her in Yangon following her return from Hong Kong. MT: What inspired you to write Smile as They Bow ? NNY: Although I had watched nat [spirit] dances many times in my childhood, I became especially interested in nat beliefs only after I went to a nat propitiating ceremony organised by a family in Yangon in 1990. A late nat medium named U Soe Kyi, who became the basis for the main character in my novel, Daisy James, took me to the ceremony where he danced. I was very fond of listening to nat songs a