Gratiaen 2017: Running the literary gamut
Carmen Wickramagamage speaking on behalf of the judges
The shortlist for the 2017 Gratiaen Prize was announced at the British Council on Monday, April 2. This year marks the silver jubilee of the prize, which has been awarded for 25 years without a break to the best submitted creative work in English, written by a Sri Lankan writer resident in Sri Lanka. Doris Gratiaen was the name of the mother of Michael Ondaatje, who instituted the prize after winning the Booker Prize in 1992.
Chiranthi Rajapakse shortlisted for her shortstory collection Names and Numbers
This year’s panel of three judges is headed by Carmen Wickramagamage, Chairperson, who is Professor in English and currently, Head of the Department of English at the University of Peradeniya. Andrew Fowler-Watt, Principal of Trinity College, Kandy, will bring in his experience as an educationist, old Etonian, Cambridge graduate, and former teacher of English literature at three independent schools in the UK. Michelle de Kretser, the celebrated Colombo-born and Australia-based author, is the third judge.
The shortlisted works, arranged alphabetically according to the last name of the writers, began with The Life of the Poet by Jean Arasanayagam. Her collection of poetry, the judges commented, is an ‘exploration of what she feels it means to be a poet.’
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Erudite, sophisticated and articulate, Arasanayagam uses a number of different aspects of her life, both present and past, to illustrate and explore the more general theme of what it means to live, and view the world, as a poet. She forensically analyzes both herself and her way of thinking about subjects such as family, art, war, faith and memory. While deeply personal, it doesn’t come across as indulgently autobiographical…. The book has been written by someone at ease with herself and her art.’
Second in the list, Neshantha Harischandra’s unpublished novel A House down Queer Street, is the story ‘of two families whose lives are linked by an intricate web of kin ties, obligations and expectations; some having to do with gender, some having to do with class- which lead to an ending- or endings- which few readers would predict.’
Neshantha Harischandra: Unpublished work ‘A House down Queer Street’
‘Its strengths lie in the deft deployment of the realist mode of narration, to convey in slow, measured prose, a strong sense of time and place and skilful characterization that conjure up characters whose destinies have everything to do with the time and place that they inhabit.’
The third writer to be shortlisted is Sunela Jayawardene. The judges opined that in her book, The Line of Lanka, Sunela ‘stylishly weaves travelogue with nature writing, ancient tales, and contemporary concerns about environment. She writes with panache about landscape, history, anthropology and myth, and ponders the connections between them. The result is a thought-provoking meditation on natural and cultural fragilities as well as traditions that endure.’
A section of the crowd at the British Council. Pix by Indika Handuwala
The final shortlisted book was Names and Numbers by Chiranthi Rajapakse. The short stories in this collection ‘illuminate significant moments in ordinary lives. In understated, lucid prose, Chiranthi captures events and encounters that bring about small, yet telling, shifts in characters’ understanding of themselves and their worlds,’ said the judges. ‘The writer’s insight into the yearnings and frustrations of the lives charted here is impressive.’
The British Council has traditionally been hosting the Gratiaen shortlist announcement while the MARGA Institute facilitated the submission of entries to the prize. The winner of this year’s Prize will be announced at a final awards ceremony, sponsored by Sarasavi Bookshop Private Limited, held in May.