Shortlist announcement: Gratiaen Prize 2016

The shortlist for the Gratiaen Prize 2016 will be announced at an event on Monday 3 April, 6 p.m. at the British Council Library, Colombo. All are invited to attend the announcement and listen to the reading of excerpts from the shortlisted entries.  

The Gratiaen Prize was founded in 1993 by the Sri Lankan-born writer Michael Ondaatje after he won the Booker Prize for ‘The English Patient’. The Gratiaen Prize 2016 is the second to be presented under the Gratiaen Trust’s new partnership with Sarasavi Bookshops, who will be sponsoring the main prize awarding event to be held in May. The 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  Both published works and unpublished manuscripts are accepted as submissions.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 the biennial H.A.I. Goonetileke Prize for translation for the years 2015-16 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 May. 

The judges for the Gratiaen Prize 2016 are: Prof. Sasanka Perera, eminent academic and social and literary commentator (chair); Chandana Dissanayake, academic and creative writer; and Ruhanie Perera, theatre and performance practitioner, lecturer, researcher and curator of arts events. The judges for the H.A.I. Goonetileke Prize for Translations 2015-16 are: Emeritus Prof. K.N.O. Dharmadasa, renowned academic and socio-cultural commentator (chair); Dr. Kumudu Kusum Kumara, sociologist, academic and socio-cultural critic; and Madhubashini Dissanayake-Ratnayake award-winning writer and university academic.

The shortlisted writers for 2016 will learn of their selection for the first time at the event on Monday 3 April. Until this time, the decisions of the judges will be kept a closely guarded secret.  At the event, excerpts of the shortlisted works will be read out and the judges will speak about how they chose the shortlist. This event, which is free and open to all, precedes the awarding of the prize to a final winner in May this year.

The shortlist event continues to be 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. 

For more information please contact Gratiaen Trust Secretary Minoli Malewana at: [email protected].