Sri Lanka 2002

Abstract

Sri Lanka was given the regional chair of the Commonwealth Writers Prize for the time in 2002. Judith Palmer, a freelance journalist from London, and Namita Gokhale, a novelist and critic from New Delhi, joined the chairperson Walter Perera at the Suisse Hotel in Kandy to deliberate on more than 90 submissions from the United Kingdom and the Indian sub-continent. The announcement of the winners (Ian MacEwan in the best book category and William Muir in the best first published book category) was made at a gala function at the Mahaweli Reach Hotel in Kandy after talks on postcolonial literature by the judges and an exhibition of books on Commonwealth Literature. An interview with the three judges and the event itself was given substantial coverage on the BBC World Service’s Meridian Writing programme. During the last few years, the Gratiaen Award has been shared by two authors. 2002 marked a change in the trend with Vijitha Fernando winning the prize for Out of the Darkness which is a translation of Gunadasa Amarasekera’s Premayé Kathawak and Sathya Kathawak. It is not possible to say too much about the translation because it is still in manuscript form. But Fernando’s winning the prize led to another debate on the advisability of accepting translations for the award. Since the object of the prize is to promote creative writing in English, it was argued that the trustees of the award were not really focussing on ‘original’ writing by making translations eligible. Then again, it was posited that translators had an unfair advantage since they choose a work of fiction, drama, or poetry that had been already produced while others had to create their own. The British Council continued its recent practice of sponsoring major literary events by organising a conference entitled ‘Creation and Sri Lanka 2002