Fairway Literary Award shortlist: Exploration of wide-ranging themes
The panel of judges and organisers at the shortlist announcement and (right) the shortlisted books. Pix by Nilan Maligaspe
The shortlist for the second Fairway National Literary Award was announced at a news conference in Colombo last week. Shortlisted authors in each language category will receive a cash prize of Rs. 100,000 while the overall winners of each category will be awarded Rs. 500,000 each.
The four shortlisted authors in the English category were Shyam S. Dissanayake for ‘The Dalada Chronicles’ (M.D. Gunasena & Co.), Quintus G. Fernando for his novel ‘Celibacy Factor’ (Author Publication), Theena Kumaragurunathan for ‘First Utterance’ (Author Publication), and Nanda Pethiyagoda for ‘Parallel Lives’ (S. Godage Brothers (Pvt)Ltd). The four shortlisted entries in the English language category were chosen from twelve submissions. The judging panel commented on the wide range of themes – such as fantasy, sci-fi, historical fiction – explored in all entries, noting that each novel was assessed according to their individual merits.
The Sinhala category saw judges sifting through 124 published novels submitted for the prize – a twofold increase from last year’s entries. This year’s Sinhala shortlist consisted of ‘Asandhimitta’ by Saman Wickramarachchi (Sarasavi Publishers), ‘Ahambakaraka’ by Liyanage Amarakeerthi (Fast Publishing (Pvt) Ltd), ‘Paradesi’ by Eric Ilayaparachchi (S. Godage Brothers (Pvt) Ltd), ‘Maha Ravana’ by Tennyson Perera (Sarasavi Publishers) and ‘Sapthambaraye Diga Dawasak’ by Kapila Kumara Kalinga (Fast Publishing). Commenting on the submissions for the category, the judges stated that the Sinhala entries this year revolved around a vast range of themes and issues and remarked that the future of the Sinhala novel was a positive one.
This year three novels were chosen from eleven submissions in the Tamil language. M. Sivalingam’s ‘Panjam Pilaikka Vantha’ (Damayanthi Publishers), N. Yogendranathan’s Neenthi Kadantha Neruppaaru’ (Author publication) and J. Wahabdeen’s ‘Kalavan Kathikal’(Department of Culture, Eastern Provincial Council)were the shortlisted novels in thiscategory. The judges stated that criteria such as use of language, plot and characters helped determine the shortlist and that a common vein threading all three shortlisted novels was that all writers had dealt with contemporary and socio-economic issues.
This year’s judges for the English entries were Tissa Devendra – former civil servant and author, Dr. Vivimarie Vanderpoorten – poet and academic, and Nayomi Munaweera – writer and winner of the Commonwealth Book Prize for the Asian region. The judging panel for the Sinhala language consisted of Dr. Dharmasena Pathiraja – film director, Krishantha Fredricks –academic in linguistic anthropology, and Professor Piyaseeli Wijemanna – short story writer. The Tamil language judging panel comprised Professor Emeritus Sitralega Maunaguru, S. Pathmanathan – former principal of Palaly Training College and poet and translator, and Professor Mohamed Abdulla Mohamed Rameez – Professor of Tamil language at the South Eastern University.
The shortlist announcement comes ahead of the Colombo Book Fair, timed to provide publicity for the shortlisted works and authors at the fair. It was noted that Fairway Holdings, who are also sponsors of the Fairway Galle Literary Festival, intends to conduct a creative writing workshop in October to further encourage local writing. Furthermore, a nationwide short story competition sponsored by the company is also on the pipeline.
This year’s Fairway National Literary Award recognizes novels published from June 1, 2015 – May 31, 2016.The trilingual literary competition was inaugurated by Fairway Holdings last year and was created to recognize and provide opportunities for Sri Lankan creative writing as well as boost the publishing industry. Any novel published in Sri Lanka in Sinhala, Tamil or English language (entries must have a Sri Lankan ISBN number) is eligible while author publications are also accepted.
Winners of the Fairway National Literary Award will be announced at the Fairway Galle Literary Festival 2017 to be held from January 11 – 15, 2017.