Friday, 30 May 2014 00:00
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The Gratiaen Prize for the best work of creative writing in English was awarded to Malinda Seneviratne on 24 May at Park Street Mews, Colombo.
This year was unique because the winner was chosen from a shortlist made up exclusively of poetry – only the second time in the history of the prize where poetry was featured exclusively. Chairman of the judging panel, Tissa Devendra, observed that the prize had been an impetus to established and aspiring writers alike.
This year’s prize was themed around ‘Unraveling your imagination’, celebrating the book in an age when many multi-media technologies are competing to dislodge the book from its long history as one of the most powerful tools of storytelling.
The current value of the prize is Rs. 200,000 and the HAI Goonetileke Prize for Translations which offers the same prize money is awarded every other year (not awarded this year). The prize was founded by Michael Ondaatje who was the joint winner of the Booker Prize for his novel The English Patient in 1993.
Guided by Ondaatje’s vision of promoting Sri Lankan writing in English through a prize devoted to resident Sri Lankan writers, the Gratiaen Prize has nurtured and rewarded Sri Lanka writing continuously for two decades.
Standard Chartered Chief Executive Anirvan Ghosh Dastidar commented: “The bank is very proud of its long affiliation with the award which completed two decades last year. The prize has inspired and recognised creative writing in English in the country and rendered sound service to engagement with the English language. We look forward to seeing even greater enthusiasm as the years progress, with writers from the younger generations submitting their work for consideration.”
The judging panel of the 2013 Gratiaen Prize included Tissa Devendra, a former senior civil servant and versatile writer (chair), Shravika Damunupola-Amarasekara, academic, and educator and researcher Vijay Nagaraj. The other shortlisted works were The Nothingness by Inosha Ijaz, A Patchwork Soul by Chamali Kariyawasam and Edges by Malinda Seneviratne.
Previous winners of the Gratiaen Prize include Carl Muller (The Jam Fruit Tree), the late Nihal de Silva (The Road from Elephant Pass), Punyakante Wijenaike (Amulet), the late Tissa Abeysekara (Bringing Tony Home), Ruwanthie de Chickera (Middle of Silence), Shehan Karunatilaka (Chinaman) and Lal Medawattegedara (Playing Pillow Politics a MGK).
Named after the first Chair of the Gratiaen Trust and Sri Lanka’s foremost librarian and bibliographer, the HAI Goonetileke Prize includes in its list of winners, Sunethra Rajakarunanayake’s Nandithya translated as The Chameleon by Vijitha Fernando, a collection of Liyanage Amarakeerthi’s short stories translated as The Hour When the Moon Weeps by Kumari Gunesekere, Eva Ranaweera’s Sedona translated by Edmund Jayasuriya and Simon Navagattegama’s Samsaraye Dadayakkaraya translated by Malinda Seneviratne.
Pix by Nirmala Dhananjaya
