For the last 30 years, the Gratiaen Prize has been one of Sri Lanka’s most prestigious literary awards for English writers. Its end-of-the-year deadline is something many of Sri Lanka’s writers have said drives them to finish their creative work to be reviewed by a panel of illustrious judges, and readers eagerly await seeing who the Gratiaen Prize nominees are and getting their hands on those books. Last week (23) saw the announcement of the shortlist for the Gratiaen Prize ahead of the final announcement of the winner which is due to take place on 22 June.
This year’s shortlist nominated four authors from a longlist of seven. The shortlisted works and authors for 2021 are ‘A Place Called Home’ by Uvini Atukorala, ‘The Unmarriageable Man’ by Ashok Ferrey, ‘The Lanka Box’ by Ciara Mandulee Mendis, and ‘Talking to the Sky’ by Rizvina Morseth de Alwis.
Following the announcement, Brunch reached out to each of the authors for their thoughts on being part of the 2021 Gratiaen Prize shortlist and to learn more about the books they’ve put together.
‘A Place Called Home’ – Uvini Atukorala
Uvini Atukorala, who has been shortlisted off of her very first book, shared that making it to the shortlist was incredibly exciting. “It’s a wonderful feeling. I’m very happy about it especially because I haven’t written before,” she shared, noting, “I’d previously only done some writing just for myself many years ago, but this was the first time I’d actually managed to write a full collection of stories.”
Like more than one of the writers from this years’ shortlist, the deadline for the Gratiaen Prize proved to be a factor in motivating Uvini to complete ‘A Place Called Home’. Knowing that she had to work to fit the December deadline made it so that she had to focus on finishing her manuscript as opposed to “taking all the time in the world”.
‘A Place Called Home’ is a collection of stories that are quintessentially Sri Lankan, explore Sri Lankan identity, and what it means to belong. “It’s a very Sri Lankan book in the sense that the characters are all Sri Lankan (most live in Sri Lanka while some have migrated) and it cuts across all strata of society and all ages.”
The ages of Uvini’s characters are also as diverse as their backgrounds – from senior citizens to children – and what brings all these people together is that they are Sri Lankans, regardless of their ages, occupations, ethnicities, religions, and whether they live within the country or outside of it. Through these diverse narratives, the book examines what it takes to call a place home.
On what inspired her to write and how she hopes it will resonate with readers one day, Uvini said: “This is what I would like to read. If it was written by someone else and I saw it in a bookshop, it is something I would pick up. All these ideas of belonging and migration are very alive as subjects, more so now than when I wrote it last year. The underlying concept of everyone together and belonging is also more vibrant now than it was last year. It has something for everybody, and when you start reading it you will realise that some of the endings are not what you would normally expect, and that is something I hope readers would like and get them interested enough to keep reading.”
‘The Unmarriageable Man’ – Ashok Ferrey
Ashok Ferrey is one of our most prolific fiction authors and is no stranger to the Gratiaen Prize – this is his fifth time being shortlisted. As he shared, chuckling: “I’m a professional bridesmaid!”
In addition to this being his fifth time being shortlisted for the Gratiaen Prize, this is his eighth or 10th time being nominated for a major prize, local or international. “I’m absolutely thrilled,” Ashok said of being shortlisted, “You think you’ll be all cool and blasé about it, but it is still very exciting. One reason is because it is an outside validation of your work. I’ve been writing for a quarter of a century and have an established readership, but seeing your work validated by an independent set of judges with their own views adds another dimension to your work.”
Ashok’s newest novel ‘The Unmarriageable Man’ is a novel about young Sri Lankans in 1980s London – but at its heart is the subject of grief: how each of us copes in our own inimitable way; how in the end you find that grief is only the transmutation of love, of the very same chemical composition – liquid, undistilled – the one inevitably turning to the other like ice to water. These themes transcend time and as Ashok explained, “one can draw parallels, especially with the grief part of it, and something I wanted to tell people is that grief is not time bound; it’s universal, and until you come across it you have no idea how it can hit you. Grief is not something we like to talk about and something we push under the carpet, but I’m old enough that I can talk about it. This book was written purely for me to resolve my own issues.”
In previous interviews, Ashok has shared that ‘The Unmarriageable Man’ is his most autobiographical book to date, and so, we asked him how it feels from that perspective, to see the book so well-received. “When writing an autobiography or a memoir, we can easily get wrapped up in a cocoon of self-righteousness and indulgence, which is one thing you mustn’t do. A book must have an external validity, which is why the shortlisting gives me absolute joy and such validation.”
‘The Lanka Box’ – Ciara Mandulee Mendis
For Ciara Mendis, being shortlisted was doubly sweet because the announcement happened to take place on her birthday. “I’m really happy and deeply honoured to have been shortlisted,” she shared with us, “I was also shortlisted last year as well for another one of my books, and this has really helped me to look at my work and believe in myself as a writer.”
Ciara’s book ‘The Lanka Box’ is a collection of short stories about the power of human connections and collisions – the voices of the people you have already met and smiled with, but whose stories you thought you would never hear – the friend of the activist, the hapless charlatan on an estate, and the smiling monk on the train. It is stories of mediating life in a postcolonial, postwar Sri Lanka.
“I studied language and am very interested in language politics in society, and I also work in Sri Lanka’s administrative services at the Department of Cultural Affairs where I get to see a bird’s eye view of the system as an administrator. I don’t plan my stories; when I feel strongly about something and I begin writing, I don’t always know how it ends. I speak about the things I have gone through and the things I have seen. I write about things I think should change and the little things that hit me hard,” Ciara said, explaining her process.
Speaking on the impact she hopes the ‘The Lanka Box’ will have, Ciara shared: “I didn’t plan on giving out a message through the book. I don’t like to romanticise what I do. If someone can read ‘The Lanka Box’ and see the other side of the story, and understand that there is not just one truth or narrative and be empathetic towards others, then I think that would be the ultimate motive behind the book.”
‘Talking to the Sky – Rizvina Morseth de Alwis
Rizvina Morseth de Alwis’s ‘Talking to the Sky’ tells the story of a Muslim family caught between modernity and rising conservatism against the backdrop of growing anti-Muslim sentiment and the fragmentation of a community leaning heavily towards Wahhabism. This is Rizvina’s third time being shortlisted for the Gratiaen Prize. “It’s always wonderful to be shortlisted. I consider it an honour, and for me personally, it’s a strong kind of validation that my writing is good enough to be shortlisted with other equally talented or better writers in the country. Even if we don’t win, it’s great to be shortlisted or even longlisted for a prestigious award like the Gratiaen Prize.”
‘Talking to the Sky’ captures the nuances at play within the Mulsim community and even within Muslim families, looking at the changes and rising conservatism that has taken place within the community over the last few decades. “It tells the story of a family navigating these changes, particularly within the context where there’s backlash against the community, from local anti-Muslim sentiments we’ve seen following the Easter attacks to global Islamophobia. It’s an ambitious piece that tries to connect these dots locally and globally and show how it filters into personal lives,” Rizvina said.
Rizvina was prompted to start writing ‘Talking to the Sky’ in the immediate aftermath of the Easter attacks. “There was so much going on and lots of backlash against the community, and I started writing more for self-reflection and for a critical gaze at the community itself – on why the attacks happened, and what we did or didn’t do to allow such a tragedy to take place. It has a lot to do with what went on before the attacks rather than the attacks themselves,” she explained, adding: “I didn’t intentionally decide to break stereotypes with this book, but you will find the story involves challenging stereotypes within the community and also shows how diverse the community is within itself, and that that diversity in itself is at risk with this conversative shift taking place and the attempts to make Islam a kind of monoculture.”
The winner of the 2021 Gratiaen Prize will be announced 22 June 2022. For further updates please follow the Gratiaen Trust (@gratiaentrust) on Facebook and Instagram.
