2016 Gratiaen Prize goes to Charulatha Abeysekara Thewarathanthri

The 2016 Gratiaen Prize was recently awarded to Charulatha Abeysekara Thewarathanthri. The H.A.I. Goonetileke Award for translation was awarded to Aditha Dissanayake’s translation of Batuwangala Rahula Thera’s Ran Karanduwa.

Charulatha Thewarathanthri received the award from Walter Perera, Chair of the Gratiaen Trust.

The Gratiaen Prize annually rewards creative writing in English by a Sri Lankan citizen resident in Sri Lanka. The H.A.I. Goonetileke Prize for translation is awarded once in two years and is intended to recognise those who provide English readers access to literature produced in Sinhala and Tamil.

The other shortlisted authors for this year’s Gratiaen Prize were Jean Arasanayagam, Rizvina Morseth de Alwis, Shehan Karunatilaka and Vivimarie VanderPoorten.

The judges for the Gratiaen Prize 2016 were Prof. Sasanka Perera (Chair of the judging panel), Chandana Dissanayake and Ruhanie Perera.The judging panel for the 2016 H.A.I Goonetileke Prize for translation were Prof. K.N.O. Dharmadasa (Chair), Dr. Kumudu Kusum Kumara and Madubhashini Dissanayake Ratnayake.

Both the Gratiaen Prize and H.A.I Goonetileke Prize are valued at Rs. 200,000 each. The prize was established in 1993 by writer Michael Ondaatje.
Creative writing eligible for the prize include novels, collections of short stories, poetry, drama as well as autobiography, biography and memoirs, both published and or in manuscript form.