Invigorating evening at the Gratiaen

Ishara Jayawardane

The Gratiaen Prize 2009 award was held on May 8, 2010. This award is given to the most outstanding talent in creative writing annually. A large number of writers, and distinguished guests in the literary circle of Sri Lanka, along with the judges was present.

The shortlist announcement for the Gratiaen Prize for 2009 was held earlier at the British Council. The shortlist included Ayathurai Santhan (The Whirlwind), Premini Amerasinghe (Tangled Threads), T. Arasanayagam ( Singing of the Angels), T. Asgar Hussein (The Mirror of Paradise) and Prashani Rambukwella (Mythil’s Secret).

The prize was won by Prashani Rambukwella (Mythil’s Secret).

“Didn’t think that a children’s book could ever win the Gratiaen. Thank you very much to the judges. I hope this encourages more of us to write for our children. I’ll tell you what I found most surprising about writing a book. When I started eight years ago on Mythil’s Secret I thought writing a book and getting it published would be a solitary journey. But I was so wrong. First of all the reading you do as a child and the influences of your childhood

really play a huge role, at least it did for me and you will see those influences in Mythil’s Secrets,” said Prashani in her speech.

Prashani quipped that she would like to thank her parents for allowing her to follow her dreams and giving up their dreams of Prashani becoming ‘sensible’ like a lawyer or accountant and following English literature which is not a very lucrative line of work.

The Chairperson of the Gratiaen Trust, Prof. Walter Perera in his address said: “On the 26th of April many authors whose submissions were accepted for the prize this year, took a short listing at the British Council. Today four other individuals will experience a deeper sense of anguish at the last post as it were. To all those who have entered this year’s competition I will first state the obvious that the Gratiaen is to encourage people to write more and write well.”

Prof. Perera also added that coming second by no means indicates that the work is inferior. Success in a competition such as this is exhilarating and empowering. The financial reward of Sri Lankan rupees 200,000 though important is but a small fraction of the total value of the prize.

“The title Gratiaen Award winner for 2009 will enhance your reputation and profile and book sales. This brings responsibilities. The writer is not expected to rest on his/her laurels but to pursue even more demanding creative progress. In accepting the Gratiaen Prize the winner becomes an ambassador for the Gratiaen prize,” Perera pointed out.

The Standard Chartered Bank has been associated with the Gratiaen for about a decade and supported their cause.

The Country Chief Risk Officer of the Standard Chartered Bank Aruni Goonetilleke in her introduction said: “We are privileged to be associate with the Gratiaen awards and to host this prestigious event. We are impressed with their commitment towards recognizing talented Sri Lankan writers and giving them a forum to demonstrate those talents. For Standard Chartered sponsorship of the awards evening is part and parcel of our strong commitment towards fostering the arts in Sri Lanka.”

This article would not be complete if the judges were not mentioned. For without them this occasion would not have been possible.

The panel of judges included Vijita Fernando who is a freelance journalist and is a correspondent to the international service, the women’s Feature Service based in New York and New Delhi. She won the 2002 Gratiaen prize for her translation of ‘Out of the Darkness’ by Gunadasa Amarasekara and the 2005 Ian Goonetileke prize for translations for ‘The Chameleon’ by Sunethra Rajakarunanayake.

Asoka de Zoysa who is attached to the faculty of the Department of Modern Languages at the University of Kelaniya where he is senior lecturer in German studies.

Rohan Ponniah who currently serves as chairman, the Wrap Factory and Wrap Productions. Rohan Ponniah is best known for his contribution to English theatre in Sri Lanka over a period of 40 years.

“Having been called upon by the Gratiaen trust to act as judges and select the most suitable literary work for the year 2009, this we feel is a great honour and we thank the board of trustees to give us this unique opportunity. It was a privilege also to be able to read so many books and unpublished manuscripts from a wide range of very talented authors from various age groups and different lifestyles. We have been reading, discussing and making notes and re reading the submissions of novels, short stories and poems and some non fictional works. It wasn’t easy selecting the best five for the short listing on the 26th of April 2010,” said Asoka de Zoysa.

”We the judges had a formidable task to draw up a criteria to select the works considered for discussion. Some works immediately gripped our attention and urged us to read further. Some works kept us in suspense. Some works took some time to come to terms with the reader. Some works had faint recollections of the story and some works were just forgotten soon after reading. Our aim as judges is to encourage writing and certainly not to discourage .What brings all of us together today is that we all love reading a good book,” added de Zoysa.

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