Vivimarie’s ‘nothing prepares you’ wins
the Gratiaen
The 2007 Gratiaen Prize was awarded to Vivamarie Vanderpooten for her collection of poetry titled 'nothing prepares you'.
This year, Dr. SinhaRaja Tammita-Delgoda was the Chairman of a distinguished trio of judges that included Dr. Maithree Wickramasinghe and Dr. Rama Mani.
Judging among what was possibly the highest number of submissions (56) in recent years, they announced a shortlist of five poets. Aside from winner Vanderpooten, the shortlist also included Ramya Chamali Jirasinghe for 'A Map and a Compass Moon,' Chamali Kariyawasam for 'Sylphlike Ether,' Malinda Seneviratne for 'Threads,' Sivamohan Sumathy for 'Like Myth and Mother,' and Vivamarie Vanderpooten for 'nothing prepares you'.
The Gratiaen was instituted with the prize money the author Michael Ondaatje received when he won another prestigious literary award - the Booker Prize - for his novel The English Patient.
Having created the Gratiaen Trust to manage the prize, Ondaatje ensured that all literary forms – ranging from fiction and poetry to dramas and literary memoirs - would be eligible, so long as they had either been published in the last year or were still in manuscript form. The winner of the prize will also receive a cash prize of LKR.100, 000. |