Fairway National Literary Award 2016 shortlist announced

Friday, 4 December 2015 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

The shortlisted entries for the Fairway National Literary Award 2015 were disclosed at a press conference held at the Hilton Residencies, Colombo 2. Along with this announcement of the shortlisted entries for the three language categories, the extremely renowned panels of judges for each of the three languages were revealed.

Three judges formed the panel for each language. The Sinhala panel composes of the Chairman of the National Arts and Cultural Policy for Sri Lanka, Dr. Sunil Wijesiriwardena, Department Head of History at the University of Colombo, Dr. Nirmal Dewasiri and Senior Lecturer at the Postgraduate Institute of English and Trustee of the Gratiaen Prize, Harshana Rambukwella.

The Tamil panel consists of well-known poet, literary critic and linguist, Professor Nuhman, Senior lecturer in the Department of Linguistics and English, University of Jaffna and translator in both Tamil and Sinhala literary fields, Saminathan Wimal and winner of the first James Madison Trust Scholarship for Asia and visiting professor at University of St Paul – Canada, Suren Rāghavan.

The English panel is Editor of Hi! Magazine, Shyamalee Tudawe, the Executive Director of the Sri Lanka Fulbright Commission, Tissa Jayatilaka and English Literature and Creative Writing lecturer, Lal Medawattegedara. Publications are contending for this award and the best novel comprising the most excellent and creative work from each stream as per the decision of the panels of judges will be eligible for a cash award of Rupees Five Hundred Thousand. Additionally, every book that has been shortlisted will be rewarded with a sum of Rs. 100,000 each.

The Fairway National Literary Award Ceremony will be held in Galle on 15 January for the first time to coincide with the landmark Fairway Galle Literary Festival which is internationally acclaimed. The award has been set up in the hopes of not only recognizing but also promoting the literary efforts of our local writers at an international platform.

The Fairway Galle Literary Festival is scheduled to be held in three cities from this upcoming edition in an effort to take it to a wider audience. The festival would be held on 8-9 January 2016 in Kandy, 14-17 in Galle and 23-24 in Jaffna.