Gratiaen shortlist in the news – The Morning, May 18, 2023

This was in The Morning.

30th Gratiaen Prize shortlist announced

2 days ago | By Shailendree Wickrama Adittiya

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The Gratiaen Prize, awarded annually by The Gratiaen Trust since 1993, is celebrating its 30th anniversary with a shortlist that includes poetry, science fiction, and short stories. The shortlist was announced on Wednesday (17) at the British Council, and consists of Flowers Teach Me to Let Go by Isurinie Anuradha Mallawaarachchi, Keeping Time and Other Stories by Chiranthi Rajapakse, Samsara by Shirani Rajapakse, and The Wretched and the Damned by Yudhanjaya Wijeratne.

The panel of judges this year is chaired by author Romesh Gunesekera, who could not be at the shortlist announcement. However, fellow judge Sukanya Wignaraja, who is a psychotherapist and coach, made the shortlist announcement, with Dr. Kaushalya Perera sharing more details about the choice of work.

“We had a wide range of entries this year in terms of genre and subject matter, and from what we saw, also authors. Poetry made up about one third of the entries. And we could also see that the political and economic events of the last year were very evident when we read the whole list of works, and that came up again and again in many different ways,” Dr. Perera said. She added that the judges also found a significant amount of focus on fantasy and psychological trauma and impressive entries in drama and young adult fiction. “Reading through all these texts gave us a very real sense of the wide scope of Sri Lankan literary writing in English,” Dr. Perera said.

She shared that, as jurors, they looked for writing that showed control of language, craft, meaning and distinctiveness. “We had a few rounds of discussion to select both the longlist and the shortlist. And I am happy and relieved to say that our choices for the longlist and the shortlist were unanimous,” Dr. Perera added.

Three decades of supporting creative writing

The Gratiaen Trust is celebrating an important anniversary this year, as The Gratiaen Prize will be awarded for the 30th time. While the winner will be announced on 17 June, The Gratiaen Trust Chairperson Prof. Neloufer de Mel explained that the prize recognises the best submitted creative work in English by Sri Lankan authors resident in the country.

Sharing that Sri Lankan literature in English has been in the shadows for a very long time, Prof. de Mel said: “These past few years, Sri Lankan literature in English has been claiming its own space and gaining traction, with Shehan Karunatilaka’s Booker Prize win coming 30 years after Michael Ondaatje won the Booker and founded the Gratiaen Trust.”

Listing other local authors who have gained recognition globally, Prof. de Mel said: “This country and Sri Lankan life yields a rich storehouse of stories and our job is to support and promote the talent of these writers and their craft to make these stories legible – to make them sing and resonate with readers here and elsewhere.”

In addition to The Gratiaen Prize, the trust will also be awarding the H.A.I.G Prize for Translation this year.

Shortlist venue partner

Delivering the welcome address at The Gratiaen Prize shortlist announcement was British Council Country Director Orlando Edwards, who shared that British Council has been the venue partner for The Gratiaen shortlist announcement since 1993.

“We are delighted to be here 30 years later celebrating the 30th anniversary this year, and I’m told in fact that the inauguration of the prize itself by the great Michael Ondaatje took place one sunny day on the lawn of the British Council. This year, we are very pleased to be providing additional financial support for The Gratiaen Trust as part of our contribution to the British High Commission’s 75th anniversary celebrations,” Edwards said.

He added that the British Council this year has a rich portfolio of cultural activities, with plans to develop broader global writing communities. “Through our partnership with The Gratiaen Trust, we’ll be bringing talented UK writers to Sri Lanka and finding new ways to showcase both well-known and emerging UK writing talent to Sri Lankan audiences.”

Supporting art and culture

John Keells Foundation, the corporate social responsibility (CSR) entity of the John Keells Group, is the primary sponsor of The Gratiaen Trust. Speaking about their relationship with the trust as well as their support for the arts in Sri Lanka was John Keells Group, Head of CSR Carmeline Jayasuriya.

“John Keells Foundation’s partnership with The Gratiaen Trust falls within our focus area of arts and culture, which is one of our pillars under CSR, which also includes education, health, livelihood development, environment sustainability, and disaster relief,” she said.

Jayasuriya went on to say that their support of the arts and culture may be a question mark to some, especially considering that John Keells Group is a corporate entity. “Why we do it is because we feel that arts and culture are very critical to the country’s success and progress, and its vision in the outside world,” she explained.

Gratiaen Shortlist in the news – YAMU, May 18, 2023

This is what YAMU published.

The 30th Gratiaen Prize shortlist was announced with the launch of the Gratiaen Trust Young Writers Club.

• May 18, 2023
• 9:08 am
• Trending

The Gratiaen Trust in association with the John Keells Foundation partnering with the Trust for the fourth successive year and with the support of the British Council as its event partner, announced the shortlist for the 30^th Gratiaen Prize and launch of the Gratiaen Trust Young Writers Club on 17 May 2023. This year out of the eight longlisted writers, four have been short-listed for the next stage of the competition: Flowers Teach Me To Let Go by Isurunie Anuradha Mallawaarachchi (poetry), Keeping Time and Other Stories by Chiranthi Rajapakse (short stories), Samsara by Shirani Rajapakse (poetry) and The Wretched and the Damned by Yudhanjaya Wijeratne (novel).

This year the Gratiaen Prize marks its 30^th year and an unbroken record of recognising and promoting Sri Lankan writing in English. This year the jury for the prize is chaired by Romesh Gunesekera, an internationally acclaimed writer who has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature; Sukanya Wignaraja, a psychotherapist by profession, a former editor at Oxford University Press, New Delhi, and an avid reader of literature; and Kaushalya Perera, a Senior Lecturer in English at the University of Colombo whose research interests span linguistics and literature. The composition of the panel reflects the Gratiaen Prize’s longstanding tradition of representing three perspectives: a creative writer, an informed general reader and an academic.

The H.A.I.G. Goonetileke Prize for Translation, a biannual prize for translation from either Sinhala or Tamil into English is also being awarded. The judging panel for the translation prize includes Prabha Manuratne, a Senior Lecturer at the Department of English, University of Kelaniya and a well-known film and literary critic who writes both in Sinhala and English, Dr Ponni Arasu, an activist, historian, theatre practitioner, lawyer and translator who works in Tamil, and Kaushalya Kumarasinghe, a Sri Lankan Sinhala language novelist and translator. The H.A.I.G. Goonetileke Prize for Translation has no shortlist and the winner will be announced at the main Gratiaen Prize event scheduled on the 17^th of June 2023 at Westminster House, Colombo, the official residence of the British High Commissioner in Sri Lanka.

Neloufer de Mel, Chairperson of the Gratiaen Trust, said, “These Prizes in this milestone year are very special to the Trust. They mark 30 years of concerted, voluntary effort to enhance and support English creative writing in Sri Lanka. A year when Shehan Karunatilleke won the Booker Prize 30 years after Michael Ondaatje, marks a time in which Sri Lankan literature in English is increasingly gaining traction on the world literary map. To continue supporting these writers, the Trust has expanded its work with Masterclasses and workshops, and we thank all our sponsors, particularly our principal sponsor John Keells Foundation, for enabling us to hold these events”. This partnership falls within John Keells Foundation’s (JKF) focus area of Arts and Culture aimed at nurturing the livelihoods of artists, enhancing skills and opportunities and showcasing Sri Lankan talent towards safeguarding and promoting Sri Lankan arts and culture under its overall vision of “Empowering the Nation for Tomorrow”. In addition to JKF, the Trust also gratefully acknowledges the support of the Wijeya Group of newspapers and the Marga Institute, which is its Secretariat.

As its latest initiative, The Trust has introduced the “Gratiaen Young Writers Club”  to promote and provide a platform for “next generation” writers to emerge and build a peer group network. This an exciting new initiative to bring together young people who share a passion for writing. The club seeks to create a community of young writers who can support, help and inspire each other to achieve literary distinction. The Club will provide a platform for writers from diverse backgrounds to meet, collaborate, share their work, receive feedback, and explore writing in various genres and styles of creative writing.

Marking the thirtieth year of collaboration with the Trust, the British Council, Sri Lanka hosted the shortlist event as it has done from the very beginning of the Gratiaen Prize. The Trust has also embarked on an exciting program in collaboration with the British Council to bring down writers from the UK to conduct literary workshops, a children’s literary event, a masterclass and several other initiatives throughout 2023 extending into early 2024. Held in various parts of the country, this program will facilitate access for different communities to access literary events, discuss and practice creative writing towards building a strong base for English literary creativity in Sri Lanka.

Gratiaen Shortlist in the news – Ada Derana May 18, 2023

Ada Derana Biz English had this about the shortlist.

The 30th Gratiaen Prize shortlist was announced with the launch of the Gratiaen Trust Young Writers Club

May, 18, 2023

 

The Gratiaen Trust in association with the John Keells Foundation partnering with the Trust for the fourth successive year and with the support of the British Council as its event partner, announced the shortlist for the 30^th Gratiaen Prize and launch of the Gratiaen Trust Young Writers Club on 17 May 2023. This year out of the eight longlisted writers, four have been short-listed for the next stage of the competition: Flowers Teach Me To Let Go by Isurunie Anuradha Mallawaarachchi (poetry), Keeping Time and Other Stories by Chiranthi Rajapakse (short stories), Samsara by Shirani Rajapakse (poetry) and The Wretched and the Damned by Yudhanjaya Wijeratne (novel).

This year the Gratiaen Prize marks its 30^th year and an unbroken record of recognising and promoting Sri Lankan writing in English. This year the jury for the prize is chaired by Romesh Gunesekera, an internationally acclaimed writer who has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature; Sukanya Wignaraja, a psychotherapist by profession, a former editor at Oxford University Press, New Delhi, and an avid reader of literature; and Kaushalya Perera, a Senior Lecturer in English at the University of Colombo whose research interests span linguistics and literature. The composition of the panel reflects the Gratiaen Prize’s longstanding tradition of representing three perspectives: a creative writer, an informed general reader and an academic.

The H.A.I.G. Goonetileke Prize for Translation, a biannual prize for translation from either Sinhala or Tamil into English is also being awarded. The judging panel for the translation prize includes Prabha Manuratne, a Senior Lecturer at the Department of English, University of Kelaniya and a well-known film and literary critic who writes both in Sinhala and English, Dr Ponni Arasu, an activist, historian, theatre practitioner, lawyer and translator who works in Tamil, and Kaushalya Kumarasinghe, a Sri Lankan Sinhala language novelist and translator. The H.A.I.G. Goonetileke Prize for Translation has no shortlist and the winner will be announced at the main Gratiaen Prize event scheduled on the 17^th of June 2023 at Westminster House, Colombo, the official residence of the British High Commissioner in Sri Lanka.

Neloufer de Mel, Chairperson of the Gratiaen Trust, said, “These Prizes in this milestone year are very special to the Trust. They mark 30 years of concerted, voluntary effort to enhance and support English creative writing in Sri Lanka. A year when Shehan Karunatilleke won the Booker Prize 30 years after Michael Ondaatje, marks a time in which Sri Lankan literature in English is increasingly gaining traction on the world literary map. To continue supporting these writers, the Trust has expanded its work with Masterclasses and workshops, and we thank all our sponsors, particularly our principal sponsor John Keells Foundation, for enabling us to hold these events”. This partnership falls within John Keells Foundation’s (JKF) focus area of Arts and Culture aimed at nurturing the livelihoods of artists, enhancing skills and opportunities and showcasing Sri Lankan talent towards safeguarding and promoting Sri Lankan arts and culture under its overall vision of “Empowering the Nation for Tomorrow”. In addition to JKF, the Trust also gratefully acknowledges the support of the Wijeya Group of newspapers and the Marga Institute, which is its Secretariat.

As its latest initiative, The Trust has introduced the “Gratiaen Young Writers Club”  to promote and provide a platform for “next generation” writers to emerge and build a peer group network. This an exciting new initiative to bring together young people who share a passion for writing. The club seeks to create a community of young writers who can support, help and inspire each other to achieve literary distinction. The Club will provide a platform for writers from diverse backgrounds to meet, collaborate, share their work, receive feedback, and explore writing in various genres and styles of creative writing.Marking the thirtieth year of collaboration with the Trust, the British Council, Sri Lanka hosted the shortlist event as it has done from the very beginning of the Gratiaen Prize. The Trust has also embarked on an exciting program in collaboration with the British Council to bring down writers from the UK to conduct literary workshops, a children’s literary event, a masterclass and several other initiatives throughout 2023 extending into early 2024. Held in various parts of the country, this program will facilitate access for different communities to access literary events, discuss and practice creative writing towards building a strong base for English literary creativity in Sri Lanka’

 

 

Winner – State Literary Awards 2022

Gods, Nukes and a whole lot of Nonsense won the State Literary Awards 2022 for the best collection of short stories published in 2021. The awards ceremony was held yesterday, October 28, 2022.