The H.A.I.G. Goonetileke Prize for Translation, awarded by the Gratiaen Trust, will be announced at an event held today (9), at 4 pm at the Lotus Room, BMICH, Colombo. It also includes the awarding of the Gratiaen Prize 2018, attended by an invited audience.
The H.A.I.G. Goonetileke Prize was established by the founder of the Gratiaen Trust, Michael Ondaatje to encourage literary translations from Sinhala and Tamil into English. The prize reflects Ondaatje’s vision for the importance of cross-cultural literary enrichment, making the best of Sinhala and Tamil language writing available to a wider audience in English. The prize is awarded bi-annually and is worth Rs 200,000. There were 11 entries for the prize this year including translations from Sinhala and Tamil poetry, and Sinhala novels and short stories.
The judges for the H.A.I. Goonetileke Prize 2018 are Prof. Sumathy Sivamohan (Chair), a well-known creative writer, film maker and professor in English at the Department of English, University of Peradeniya; Prof. Saumya Liyanage, a renowned theatre and film actor and professor at the University of Visual and Performing Arts; Charulatha Thewarathanthri, a past Gratiaen Prize winner and recipient of the State Literary Award and the Godage National Book award; and Esther Surenthiraraj, a sociolinguist and lecturer at the Department of English, University of Colombo. The event is sponsored by Sarasavi Bookshop Pvt. Ltd.