GRATIAEN Extra special something, or nothing?

Ishara JAYAWARDANE

When I asked one of the staffers to interview someone, from a critical perspective, about the Gratiaen awards, this (below) is what he come up with! It’s representative partly of the milieu in which the Gratiaen has come to grow up -- uncritical, and unctuous, and therefore not given to improvement.

Though the Gratiaen award has been given to a couple of good writers, on many occasions it has been given to work unworthy of honour - - sometimes translations as well! The award has also spawned an incestuous culture of literary appraisal.

The judges have been mostly like minded keepers of status quo, on many occasions those who know nothing about creative writing. None of which the Chairman of the Trust talks about in this interview, which at least shows one thing, the more things are supposed to change, the more they stay the same. - EDITOR

Q: Is the Gratiaen award more than a mere prize appreciating an individual’s English literary creativity? What does the Gratiaen mean to you?

A: The Gratiaen is more than a prize that brings Rs 200,000 to the winner. Over the two decades of its existence it has endeavored to stimulate creative writing in English in Sri Lanka.

Unlike many prizes around the world which only allow printed books to be submitted (thus generally rewarding only established writers) the Gratiaen permits manuscripts to be entered as well. This enables a writer who does not have the means get his or her book into print to do so after winning the Gratiaen. One of the prize rules is that if the winning entry is a manuscript, part of the prize money should be utilized to publish the book. Furthermore, prominence is not confined to the winners.

The shortlisted writers, too, benefit by being interviewed in the press, being rendered “visible” at the shortlist event, and being able to insert “shortlisted for the Gratiaen Prize” on the cover of their books. Since your question referred to the “Gratiaen” and not “Gratiaen Prize,” I should also like to point out that the Gratiaen has organized workshops for creative writers, promoted translations and in the recent past embarked on “Gratiaen Evenings” which is intended to bring Gratiaen activities to a wider audience. The first of these Gratiaen Evenings was a discussion with the Sri Lankan- born playwright and director Ernest Macintyre.

Q: What should a work possess to win the Gratiaen?

A: I am not sure that anyone can provide a formula to win the Gratiaen or any prize for that matter. However, one could say dedication to the “craft of writing” would be a good start.

“Craft” means many things here: the patience and humility to subject your writing to numerous edits and rewrites based on others’ comments; commitment to your subject by doing diligent research, which also brings an “authentic feel” to your writing; being able to write in a compelling and fresh style which comes from years of engaging with your writing; a good knowledge of the genre within which you write (this is important even if you want to break the genre rules) and of course that extra special “something” that sets you apart from the crowd—this may not be easily definable but is something that usually comes from a combination of the above. But we cannot stress enough that writing is a craft. We do not subscribe to the Romantic belief that good writing is something that flows automatically and spontaneously. While artistic inspiration is important it also takes a lot of hard work.

Many successful writers become so after years and years of trying. There are rarely shortcuts.

Q: How did the Gratiaen Trust come to exist?

A: The Gratiaen Prize was set up when Sri Lankan-born Canadian author Michael Ondaatje became joint winner of the Booker Prize for his novel The English Patient.

He set up the Gratiaen Trust to administer the Gratiaen Prize which he instituted in memory of his mother Doris Gratiaen with his Booker winnings. Initially the prize carried Rs 100,000 and included translations as well. It was later increased to Rs 200,000.

The first Chair of the Gratiaen Trust was H A I Goonetileke, the famous Sri Lankan librarian and bibliographer, who was a close friend of Ondaatje.

After three years, his position was taken by Godfrey Gunatilleke, the founder of the MARGA institute, who was Chair of the Trust for the longest period of time.

I am the current Chair. Michael Ondaatje is a trustee but does not involve himself in the day-to-day affairs of the Trust nor does Michael Sproule who is on the Board as the lawyer to the Trust.

Given your question, I should perhaps name those others who have served on the Board of Trustees in the past, precluding those whose names have been mentioned elsewhere in this interview: Ranjini Obeysekera, Nihal Fernando, Arjuna Parakrama, Radhika Coomaraswamy, Richard Boyle, and Tissa Jayatilaka who was Chair of the Trust for a brief period.

Q: Of those who have won the Gratiaen prize from 1993- 2011, could you identify those have gone on to be the most successful ?

Which prize winner/s went on to greater fame?

A: The expressions “most successful” and “greater fame” are relative and it is usually unfair to single out literary success in these terms because both could be the result of the power of the publisher, the ability to “network” and to use advertizing to one’s advantage rather than literary merit but if you really want me to answer this, I would say Carl Muller whose The Jamfruit Tree was joint winner of the first Gratiaen Prize. Not only was its publication a defining moment in Sri Lankan writing in English but he followed this up with several other books that have been equally successful.

A few years ago, a relatively unknown writer won the Gratiaen for his manuscript entitled Chinaman.

This book has subsequently been published by Jonathan Cape, Vintage and Random House (India).

The novel also won the DSC prize for South Asian Literature and the Commonwealth Book Prize. Shehan Karunatilaka, the author of this multi-award winning work, has been our greatest visible success.

Q: If you are a Gratiaen Prize winner are you guaranteed fame and fortune later on in life?

A: I do not think too many people enter the competition for the money. Rs 200,000 is a substantial figure but will not make one rich. The objective of the Gratiaen Prize is to promote creative writing in English. We hope the winner, those shortlisted, and others who were motivated to write because of the prospect of winning would continue to write and become the nation’s leading writers in English.

If this brings them fame and fortune that is a bonus indeed but there can be no guarantees.

Q: Has every Prize winner done comparatively well?

A: We do not follow the careers of all our former winners but many of them continued to write. I have already mentioned Carl Muller.

Shehan Karunatilaka is working on his second novel, the late Nihal de Silva wrote three novels after he won with The Road from Elephant Pass (the last Arathi was unfinished) and the same applies to several others who have won the Gratiaen Prize.

Q: How are the panel of judges selected?

A: As is the practice in many literary awards, the Trust tries to obtain the perspectives of the academic, the informed general reader and the writer in setting up a judging panel.

As you will appreciate, this is not the easiest of tasks since we have such a small pool to choose from in Sri Lanka.

Thus far, however, we have managed well enough without yet having to ask any individual to judge for a second time. You will find that this year’s selection of judges fulfills the criteria in every aspect.

How are they selected? Usually, at the relevant meeting, the chair asks for suggestions; the names are discussed; those nominated contacted to check for availability and willingness; and the panel then set up.

While we appoint the panel and provide them with general guidelines pertaining to the Gratiaen prize, we do not involve ourselves in the evaluating process in anyway. Each panel formulates it own criteria.

Q: What is the Three Wheeler Press?

A: The Trust set up the Three Wheeler Press to publish some manuscripts that were awarded the Gratiaen Prize and to support other creative projects.

At present, it has brought out A Lankan Mosaic - translations of Sinhala and Tamil stories into English - and two other volumes in which the original contributions to this collection were translated into Sinhala and Tamil.

For the third phase of the translation project, the Three Wheeler Press published two significant modern novels from Tamil and Sinhala into English.

The translations were commissioned by the Trust. S. Ponnuthurai’s Sadangu was translated as Ritual by Chelva Kanaganayakam and Sunethra Rajakarunanayake’s Podu Purushaya was translated as Metta by Carmen Wickramagamage.

The latter translation won the State Literary Award.

Q: How were the trustees of the Gratiaen trust chosen?

A: Initially, in instituting the Trust, Michael Ondaatje asked Ian Goonetileke to be its Chair as I have already mentioned.

The original Trust also included Rajiva Wijesinha and Gillian Ondaatje-Ratnayake (Michael’s sister). The Board was then expanded when Godfrey Gunatilleke took over. New members are brought in after discussions at a Board meeting when members retire or there is a felt need to increase its numbers. Michael Ondaatje is kept informed. You will generally find that a third or so of the Trustees are those who have higher degrees in English and been involved in literary awards.

In the current board, I was Chair of the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Eurasia, a member of the Advisory Committee of the DSC prize, and a Gratiaen judge besides being a Professor in English.

Neloufer de Mel who is also a Professor in English was a judge for the Commonwealth Writers Prize and a former Gratiaen judge, Harshana Rambukwella, a Senior Lecturer in the Postgraduate Institute of English, was involved in judging both the Gratiaen and the State Literary Awards.

We also have someone on the Board to represent the Ondaatje family—Michael’s sister Gillian to begin with and now her son-in-law Peter Bluck who is the Treasurer to the Trust.

While it is imperative that a Trust that oversees a literary award includes those with relevant academic qualifications in English and experience in judging prizes of this kind, it is equally important that such an organization has in its ranks those who have the capacity to organize events.

Kamini de Soysa previously served as Secretary to the Trust and her work has been taken over by Nafeesa Amiruddeen. The only member of the Trust who has not been named so far is Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu who is Executive Director of the Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA) and was once the Chair of a Gratiaen judging panel.

Remember that Trustees do not receive any financial compensation for the work they put in. They have to plan Gratiaen events and institute policies while pursuing their own professional and personal careers. Furthermore, the money provided by Michael Ondaatje funds the Gratiaen Prize and the HAI Goonetileke Prize for Translation only.

This is why we are so glad to have support from Standard Chartered Bank.

The bank funds the advertising campaign, the main event and also provides other forms of logistical support. The British Council for its part has always hosted the shortlist event.

Q: The Gratiaen prize is intended to encourage English writing by Sri Lankans. How do you assess the current state of English Literature in Sri Lanka?

A: Since the number of submissions for the Gratiaen Prize keeps increasing each year we can say with some conviction that the Prize has motivated several people to write.

We receive entries in many genres: fiction, poetry drama, memoirs and other forms of writing. As for the current state of English Literature in Sri Lanka, let me for a moment speak not as a representative of the Gratiaen Trust but as one who has compiled the annual bibliography on Sri Lankan writing in English for The Journal of Commonwealth Literature since 1995.

Although the quality is not consistent, more people produce literature in English than they did before.

That the availability of computers, desktop publishing and digital printing has led to much “vanity” publishing it must be said.

However, some of our leading publishers, too, have begun to accept more literary works in English for publication and they do not confine themselves to local writers.

In the recent past, a significant number of Sri Lankan writers from overseas have begun to have their work published in the island as well. The editorial process has also improved significantly which has significantly impacted on the end product.

All this augurs well for the future of Sri Lankan Literature in English in Sri Lanka.