Madhubhashini Disanayaka-Ratnayake wins 2011 Gratiaen Prize

The Gratiaen Prize for 2011 for the best work of creative writing in English was awarded to Madhubhashini Disanayaka-Ratnayake on 26 May, at Park Street Mews, Colombo, while Malinda Seneviratne received the H.A.I. Goonetileke Prize for Translation.

Madhubhashini won the award for her unpublished novel ‘There’s Something I Have to Tell You’ and malinda for his unpublished manuscript ‘The Hunter in the Wilderness’ a translation of Simon Navagattegama’s ‘Sansaranyaye Dadayakkaraya’.

The Gratiaen Prize was funded by Michael Ondaatje with the prize money he received as the joint winner of the Booker Prize for his novel ‘The English Patient’ and the H.A.I. Goonetileke Prize from a tranche he sends whenever the prize is offered by the Trust.  The value of each prize is Rs. 200,000. With the excepting of the two prizes, the entire event was sponsored by Standard Chartered Bank which has worked together with the Gratiaen Trust in promoting creative writing in English for several years.

In his introductory speech, Chair of the Trust Walter Perera reflected on Shehan Karunatilaka’s success of ‘Chinaman: The Legend of Pradeep Mathew’ which won the 2008 Gratiaen Prize and stated that it has brought credit to the island by winning the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature in English and the Commonwealth Book Prize for Asia. He stated that all creative writers in the country (including those who send in entries for the Gratiaen) should not only be inspired by his success, but perhaps employ his work ethic in their own literary endeavours as a sort of benchmark.  

Perera also mentioned that more workshops and literary evenings are in the pipelines in order to foster quality talent.

Speaking at the event Standard Chartered Bank CEO Anirvaran Ghosh Dastidar reaffirmed the bank’s commitment in supporting the Gratiaen Prize and the arts in general.

The judging panel for the Gratiaen Prize included Gill Westaway (Chairperson), Harshana Rambukwella and Delon Weerasinghe.  Westaway stressed that ‘There’s Something I Have to Tell You’ had won by a majority vote and added that, while Sri Lankans had a tremendous desire to write and possessed talent, they needed to focus more diligently on the craft of writing, a quality that Madhubhashini had demonstrated in her work, which ultimately won her the award. 

The other shortlisted writers were Charulatha Abeysekara Thewarathanthri’s ‘Autumn Leaves’ (unpublished novel), Lucky de Chickera ‘Sarasu…Amidst Slums of Terror’ (published novel), Mariam Riza ‘Cry for Me a Little: Stories of the Souls’ (published short stories) and Malinda Seneviratne, ‘Some Texts are Made of Leaves’ (Unpublished poetry).

Chair of the H.A.I. Goonetileke Prize for Translation judging panel Ariyawansa Ranaweera said that the literary quality of the original work and the skill with which the translator had transferred the subtleties and nuances of the original to the reader were among the factors considered by the panel in selecting a winner.

Malinda Seneviratne had chosen a work written in classical Sinhala which was difficult to translate and had skilfully completed the task of conveying its culture and milieu in his translation. The other judges were Sandagomi Coperahewa and Shravika Dhamunupola.

In his acceptance speech, Seneviratne thanked Leanage Amarakeerthi who had encouraged him to write the translation, which he published in parts in The Sunday Observer previously, while Madhubhashini thanked the judging panel and promised to work harder at polishing the quality of the winning entry.