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Delon
wins Gratiaen Prize 2005 Thicker than Blood, a war story, written from the perspective of an ex-soldier was unanimously chosen by the panel of judges who cited the work as one which explores “a contemporary, even relatively common issue, but which examines and scrutinizes that issue from several angles.” Weerasinghe’s work is one where the language of the characters is as close an approximation to the colloquial idiom, the pace – relentless and the conclusion shocking but inevitable. I’ve had the play with me for the last four or five years, if I had known this I would have sent it in earlier, quipped the writer, who dedicated his play – “a story of personal courage” – to his mother who embodied the spirit of his work. The Gratiaen Prize is awarded annually to the best work of literary writing in English by a Sri Lankan, resident in this country. Entries both published and in manuscript form are accepted and this year’s 52 entries covered a wide spectrum of creative writing such as novels, literary memoirs, plays, poetry and short stories. The shortlist for the Gratiaen Prize this year, said Dr. Dushyanthi Mendis who chaired the panel of judges in her summation, is one that takes us in new directions in terms of language, character, plot and theme, where the writer displays the ability to gauge one’s target audience without coming across as patronising or self absorbed. Also shortlisted for the Gratiaen Prize 2005 was Mad People, Senaka Abeyratne’s work, a play not about mad people, but about sane people perceived as mad because of who they are in terms of their sexual identity usually dismissed as deviating from the norm, Dilshara Gomes’ Learning to Fly, a story that journeys from childhood to adolescence to adulthood, written in style that is a refreshing departure from conventional narrative technique, Madhubhashini Ratnayake’s Strange Tale of Love, a collection of short stories woven into a novel which pierces the foundations of a world of socially constructed gender roles and relations and The Wait for Eternity by Chelliah Shanmugalingam, which tells the story of ordinary people living extraordinary lives – a people trapped with no choices – because of our nation’s war. The panel of judges comprised Dr. Dushyanthi Mendis, a senior lecturer attached to the Department of English, University of Colombo, lawyer and human rights activist Manori Muttetuwegama and writer and publisher Ameena Hussein. The H.A.I Goonetileke Prize for Translation 2005 was not awarded due to insufficient entries. |
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