Judges struck by the remarkable variety

As always, every chair in the small auditorium was occupied. With Colombo’s literati in attendance, the announcement of the five nominees for the 2010 Gratiaen Prize typically generates not only a great deal of speculation but a new book list for the island’s reading public. Established 18 years ago by Michael Ondaatje with his Booker Prize winnings, the Gratiaen has recognized the work of some of Sri Lanka’s best known authors, including Carl Muller (who won it first for the Jam Fruit Tree), Nihal de Silva, Sybil Wettasinghe, Elmo Jayawardena, Punyakante Wijenaike and most recently Prashani Rambukwella for her novel ‘Mythil's Secret’. Who will it be this year?

Lto R: Shirani Rajapaksa, Herman Gunaratne, Shyam Dissanayake, Sakuntala Sachithanandan and Rozaine Cooray

The people who will make that decision are Feizal Samath, Sunethra Bandaranaike and Dinithi Karunanayake. (The three come from very different backgrounds: Feizal is the chairperson of the panel of judges and business editor of The Sunday Times. Sunethra is currently the chairperson of a trust in her own name that supports those involved in the performing arts and Dinithi is a lecturer in English at the University of Colombo.) Though the number of entries seems to have dropped slightly this year, with only 44 submissions, the panel found themselves heartened by the diversity of interests represented therein.

Addressing the gathering, Feizal said they were struck by the “remarkable variety” of topics and that these ranged from the banal to the supernatural, and covered subjects that were of historical and political interest as well. Typically entries cover the spectrum from poetry to drama along with literary memoirs and works of fiction. Some of the books seemed to “float between fact and fiction,” the chairperson noted, explaining that they could be said to belong to the genre of “faction”.

Several noteworthy memoirs were also submitted by people who had worked not only in the plantation sector, but in the diplomatic service and in the field of medicine. Almost every year the Gratiaen has had submissions that dealt with the recent conflict in the country and this year was no exception. The judges declared themselves unsurprised to find a significant number of entries that focused on the 30 year-old conflict and its outcomes. “They often expressed opposing viewpoints on conflict-related issues and are, we believe, reflective of a people emerging from a long-drawn out war,” noted Feizal.

Though they praised some authors for writing with a “strong sense of humour and irony that we Sri Lankans are familiar with,” they also noted that there were a disappointing number of language related errors in many of the texts submitted.

The three judges spent many hours combing through all the submissions - most of which were manuscripts with a few published books thrown in - to come up with the five nominees. Making the cut this year (in alphabetical order) were: Rozaine Cooray for her debut novel ‘Colours of the Sun’, Shyam Dissanayake for his novel ‘Dalada’, Herman Gunaratne for his memoir ‘The Suicide Club’, Shirani Rajapaksa for her collection of stories ‘Breaking News’ and Sakuntala Sachithanandan for her collection of poems ‘On the Streets and other Revelations’. The judges explained that they made their decision based on criteria like the handling of the plot, the use of language, the creation of detailed and nuanced characters and originality of subject matter, among other considerations.

Just over a month from now, on May 21, a winner will be announced. The Rs.200,000 prize money he or she will receive is meant to facilitate the publishing of the winning entry within six months of the announcement. The Gratiaen Prize is closely affiliated with Standard Chartered Bank, whose campaign for the 2010 Awards was launched with the tag line “English in text, Sri Lankan in essence’.
In the coming weeks, you can look forward to reading excerpts from the books and more about each individual writer in The Sunday Times.