Gratiaen Prize shortlist to be announced on April 8
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The Gratiaen Trust will announce the shortlist for the Gratiaen Prize 2018 on Monday April 8, at 6 p.m. at the British Council Library, Colombo. All are invited to attend this event at which a discussion with the longlisted authors moderated by Ruhanie Perera will also take place.
The authors on the longlist are: Seneka Abeyratne – The Beast and Other Stories; Elmo Jayawardena – Kakiyan: The Story of a Crow; Chamali Kariyawasam – Catharsis; Shehan Karunatilaka – Chats with the Dead; Upali Mahaliyana – Youthful Escapades; Ayathurai Santhan – Every Journey Ends; Arun Welandawe-Prematilleke – The One Who Loves You So; Zeneefa Zaneer – They Failed to Kill Her.
Founded in 1993 by the Sri Lankan-born writer Michael Ondaatje after he won the Booker Prize for The English Patient, the Gratiaen Prize 2018, the first after the Prize celebrated its 25th year, sees a number of significant changes. The prize is being presented under the Gratiaen Trust’s partnership with Sarasavi Bookshop (Pvt) Ltd, who will be sponsoring the main prize awarding event to be held on June 9 at the BMICH.
The Gratiean Prize is awarded each year to the best submitted creative work in English, written by a Sri Lankan writer resident in Sri Lanka. Both published works and unpublished manuscripts are accepted as submissions. This year, another award donated by Michael Ondaatje - the H.A.I. Goonetileke Prize for Translation for the years 2017-18- is also being awarded. There is no shortlist announcement for the H.A.I Goonetileke Prize and the winner will be announced at the main Gratiaen Prize awarding event in June.
The judges for the Gratiaen Prize 2018 are: Gill Caldicott, Director, British Council, Sri Lanka (chair); Ramya Jirasinghe, creative writer and researcher; and Andi Schubert, university academic and social researcher. The judges for the H.A.I. Goonetileke Prize for Translations 2017-18 are: Sumathy Sivamohan (chair), film maker and academic; Saumya Liyanage, dramatist, actor and academic; Charulatha Thewarathanthri, writer; and Esther Surenthiraraj, university academic.
The shortlist event is supported by the British Council, Sri Lanka as it has been since the inception of the prize. The collection of manuscripts for the Gratiaen and H.A.I. Goonetileke prizes and many administrative activities of the Gratiaen Trust, which administers the prizes, are facilitated by the MARGA Institute which has been supporting the Trust from its outset.