Gratiaen Prize 2006 awarded – Any thoughts on the Winners?
The Gratiaen Prize 2006 was jointly awarded to Senaka Abeyratne for his play ‘Three Star K’ and Isankya Kodituwakku for her collection of short stories “The Banana Tree Crisis”.
-The Sunday Times 25/03/07
(article not available online)
A kickback to my earlier post would explain this writer’s interest in finding out to what extent the Gratiaen is seen as being a useful developer of Sri Lankan writing in English .
Has anyone read the stories or seen the play? If so what are your thoughts on this year’s winners? Has the Gratiaen lived up to its potential and raised the bar for Creative Writing in Sri Lanka?
I have not had the time to read Good Little Ceylonese Girl (though I have it with me) and haven’t really heard much of the other two writer’s.
Am I the only frog in the well with regard to these writers? If that is the case then the Gratiaen must be commended. But how good are the works(in your opinion)? Maybe not even a comparison but at least what you felt about an individual work.
Your time and opinions would be much appreciated.
Amelie said,
March 26, 2007 at 8:17 pm
Hi… Senaka’s play was produced some time ago. This wasthe third time he had been shortlisted, so obviously 9 different judges have thought that he is worthy of being considered for the prize. I heard excerpts at the shortlist and at the final event. It sounds bold and intriguing. A friend of mine had seen his plays and said she was really impressed. Isankya’s stories are available, published by VY. I read them and thought they were very sensitive and very readable. Check it out and tell me what you think.
Negligible Minoritist said,
March 30, 2007 at 5:16 am
Hi Amelie,
Thanks for the prompt reply. I will get down to reading those. I’m in exams at the moment and so I haven’t really been keeping up with the blog.
BTW your comment about being short listed thrice is interesting… Does that mean that one of this year’s winner was a worse book than two which have won for the last two years?
Oh no!
Sincere apologies for the hiatus,
Regards
Amelie said,
March 30, 2007 at 12:45 pm
Hey, Come on!!!! Thats not how its supposed to be interpreted! What it means is that this writer’s work has been constantly at a certain level. And besides the two that were shortlisted before were different plays. The one that one was a new play. It was the same writer but 3 different submissions. so maybe this time his work was really better than his previous two plays. Well, you get my point… Good luck with the exams.
A
Amelie said,
March 30, 2007 at 12:47 pm
Oops. typo in the third line of my comment: It should read “The one that WON was a new play…” Sorry
N said,
April 4, 2007 at 9:26 am
Well I’ve read both Banana Tree Crisis and Good Little Ceylonese Girl. Though I did prefer the latter I must say the former was very impressive in that it to me seemed very different stylistically to the usual Sri Lankan literature. It was very simple, and I mean that in a good way…it was refreshingly straightforward…me being a fan of the obtuse was probably the reason I liked Ceylonese Girl…but I think the Banana Tree Crisis was a worthy winner
Amelie said,
April 5, 2007 at 12:54 pm
yeah, I read good little ceylonese girl too… my problem with it is, although its quite funny, it is also quite shallow. The writer has no real depth, I think… dont know… I felt the same about colpetty people. kind of surface. And many of the stories have the same theme… the virile Asian (sri lankan, usually) guy, 80’s England in the thatcher years, the exploitative white older woman….that combination. And sometimes the humour is duh…. But definitely readable. Whether worthy of a litrary award, I am not too sure.
chanux said,
April 6, 2007 at 10:30 pm
Nice to meet you.