Fairway National Literary Awards 2016 calls for entries

Friday, 20 May 2016 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Fairway Holdings presents the Fairway National Literary Awards 2016 for the second consecutive year to recognise exceptional talent in creative writing in the Sinhala, Tamil and English languages in Sri Lanka. All novels published in our country between 1 June 2015 and 31 May 2016 in all genres will be eligible for these awards.

The Fairway National Literary Awards were set up in 2015 in conjunction with Fairway Holdings assuming the role of title sponsor of the prestigious Fairway Galle Literary Festival. The awards for last year were given away at the glittering inaugural Fairway National Literary Awards 2015 ceremony that was held in Galle in January this year under the patronage of prominent dignitaries with Prof. Maithree Wickramasinghe, wife of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, being the Chief Guest.

The winner in the Sinhala category was declared to be Sepali Mayadunne for her novel ‘Mahasami’, while Rev Batuwangala Rahula Thero’s novel ‘Rankaranduwa’, Kaushalya Kumarasinghe’s novel ‘Mey Rahas Kauluwen Ebenna’ and Visakesa Chandrasekaram’s novel ‘Raja Saha Ghathakaya’ were shortlisted.

In the English category the joint winners were declared to be Rizvina Morseth de Alwis and Ayathurai Santhan for their novels ‘It’s Not In The Stars’ and ‘Rails Run Parallel’ respectively. Afdhel Aziz’s novel ‘Strange Fruit’, Visakesa Chandrasekaram’s novel ‘The King and the Assassin’ and Manuka Wijesinghe’s novel ‘Sinhala Only’ were shortlisted.

Sajani Senanayake, aged 15, won the Chairman’s Award for the most encouraging new talent for her novel ‘The Pearl Of The Truth’.

Submissions for this year’s competition will be accepted from 10 April to 5 July at the Fairway National Literary Awards Secretariat located at ‘The Fairways’, 100, Buthgamuwa Road, Rajagiriya (Telephone: 0117586586/0774462285). A specially selected panel of judges will review all entries and announce the shortlists for all three languages in the second week of September 2016. All shortlisted authors will be awarded Rs. 100,000 each and the winners of the Fairway National Literary Awards 2016 in all three languages will receive Rs. 500,000 each. The grand Fairway National Literary Awards 2016 ceremony will be held in Galle in January 2017.

An increased number of entries is expected this year due to the across the board acceptance that these awards have received. The salutary objective of these awards is to provide pathways for talented local writers to achieve national level significance and showcase their creative work to a countrywide audience. The fact that the awards ceremony is held concurrently with the internationally acclaimed Fairway Galle Literary Festival provides the writers with the additional benefit of being able to present their work to an international audience. It is hoped that these awards will promote the unearthing of new talent during forthcoming years and spur on many young aspiring writers to bring forth outstanding creative work.

Fairway Holdings wishes all prospective contenders the best of luck and promises that all entries would be considered purely on merit with the panel of erudite judges ultimately selecting the best works that are worthy to be bestowed the 2016 Fairway National Literary Awards.