{"id":125315,"date":"2014-06-01T01:12:01","date_gmt":"2014-05-31T19:42:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=125315"},"modified":"2014-06-01T01:12:01","modified_gmt":"2014-05-31T19:42:01","slug":"on-winning-the-gratiaen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/on-winning-the-gratiaen\/","title":{"rendered":"On Winning The Gratiaen"},"content":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Malinda Seneviratne<\/a><\/span>\u00a0–<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Malinda<\/a>

Malinda Seneviratne<\/p><\/div>\n

It is customary for the winner of the Gratiaen Prize<\/span><\/a> for Creative Writing to deliver an acceptance speech.\u00a0 Accordingly, on Saturday May 24, 2014, as the recipient of the prize I addressed the audience.\u00a0 In previous years, The Nation<\/i> has featured those shortlisted for the award as well as the eventual winner.\u00a0 Naturally, I excluded myself from these exercises.\u00a0 This time, however, for reasons that do not require elaborate, when the Features Editor wanted \u2018something\u2019 I said I would write what I remember of my acceptance speech.\u00a0 Later I realized that I might not remember everything and also that in the rush of the moment I left out certain things I ought to have mentioned.\u00a0 So in this piece I will write what I said and in italics <\/i>add that which I did not but ought to have.<\/p>\n

It occurred to me that 29 years from now, I would be just one of fifty Gratiaen Prize winners.\u00a0 Now had I not won, 29 years from now (who knows?) I might be the only one to have been shortlisted on five occasions. \u00a0I\u2019ve submitted to the Gratiaen six times over the past seven years. Looking back, the high point has clearly been winning the H.A.I. Goonetilake Prize for the Best Translation, that of Simon Navagaththegama\u2019s Sansaaraaranyaye Dadayakkaraya.\u00a0 That was special because<\/i> that text is an important literary landmark and because Simon Navagaththegama was one of the best writers in Sinhala in the second half of the last century.<\/i>\u00a0 It was special because of who Ian Goonetilake was.\u00a0 He was an adornment to the Gratiaen.<\/p>\n

In the past seven years, thanks to the Gratiaen, I encountered many good writers.\u00a0 Among the poets whose work I am acquainted with, there was Vivimarie Vander Poorten the winner of the 2007 Gratiaen<\/i>.\u00a0 Ramya Jirasinghe, to my mind, is the most outstanding poet of my generation.\u00a0 There is Marlon Ariyasinghe who wrote a book called \u2018Froteztology\u2019 some years back. He was not shortlisted. There is Dhanuka Bandara, again someone who was not shortlisted. He has a kind of confidence in expression, wit and ability to dissect that is rare in one so young.\u00a0 <\/i>Inosha Ijaz, shortlisted this time, is clearly the poet of tomorrow.\u00a0 Her mastery of metaphor and her ability to connect disparate things in new and thought-provoking ways is amazing.\u00a0 There\u2019s another poet I must mention although he never submitted for the Gratiaen. Rasika Jayakody writes about love in poetic form in a way that no one I know can.<\/p>\n

Among those who write prose, there\u2019s of course Shehan Karunatilleka and there\u2019s Asgar Hussein. \u00a0I was impressed by Ruwanthi De Chickera and Nadee Kammellaweera for the script of their play \u2018Kalumali\u2019.<\/i>\u00a0 There are probably others whose names I\u2019ve missed.<\/p>\n

There have been strange moments too.\u00a0 For example, on one occasion we were told that \u2018unfortunately there was very little engagement with political themes\u2019.\u00a0 I had thought that what was being assessed was literary worth of texts submitted.\u00a0 The judges may have their preferred topics, but that\u2019s largely irrelevant.\u00a0 More seriously, when one yearns for the political what is implied is that there are political preferences which, naturally, factor in to decision.\u00a0 By the same token there would also be political positions opposed or even abhorred.\u00a0 I\u2019ve often wondered, I must say, about the politics of the Gratiaen or rather its key players.\u00a0 <\/i><\/p>\n

It was stated once that perhaps the Gratiaen Trust should consider having separate prizes for poetry, short stories and plays.\u00a0 Again, this surprised me.\u00a0 The Nobel Prize for Literature has been given not only to novelists.\u00a0 It\u2019s a position that has been echoed by others, some writing to newspapers.\u00a0 The claim is that writing novels is somehow tougher.\u00a0 Well, more sweat does not necessary deliver better literature, if indeed there\u2019s more \u2018effort\u2019 in writing a novel as opposed to a collection of poetry.\u00a0 Pablo Nerud, Octavio Paz, Rabindranath Tagore are among several poets who have won the Nobel Prize, I told myself. <\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So it\u2019s been a long seven years.\u00a0 Let me begin with the first time I submitted. I was thrilled to learn that I had been shortlisted.\u00a0 That year, however, I was disqualified.\u00a0 I found out who had moved for my disqualification and was not surprised to learn <\/i>that he is someone for whom the Gratiaen was an adornment. Let me not say anything more about that.\u00a0 That same year, I remember clearing someone\u2019s name. In public.\u00a0 That someone, when the opportunity came, did not clear my name, even though that someone knew (and acknowledged to me later<\/i>) that I was in the clear.\u00a0 I lost a friend that night. I gained a lesson.<\/p>\n

I was disappointed.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t want to submit to the Gratiaen again, but on the 30th<\/sup> or 31st<\/sup> of December 2008, I decided I would rag the next set of judges by forcing them to read something I had written. I had some poems but the collection seemed too thin. Fortunately I had another collection.\u00a0 I had been inspired by a beautiful book by Pablo Neruda, \u2018The Book of Question\u2019.\u00a0\u00a0 It was to these questions that Inosha had provided those beautiful answers in her Gratiaen submission.\u00a0 The book inspired me to write my own questions, some 250 of them.\u00a0 So I broke them into groups of five and inserted each set between the poems.\u00a0 That gave me a volume.\u00a0 It was shortlisted.\u00a0 I remember Michael Meyer mentioning that it was a unique format.\u00a0 I told him how that unique format came about. He said \u2018So you tricked us!\u2019 and I replied, \u2018it would seem I have!\u2019\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Shehan won that year.\u00a0 I feel privileged to have been shortlisted with him.\u00a0 When I listened to the excerpt he read out when the shortlist was announced I knew we had something special.\u00a0 Shehan also had the humility to pick my brains about sports journalists and newspapers later on.\u00a0 I believe some of what I said went into a later edit of his text.<\/p>\n

I had a collection the following year too but the recipient of all those poems didn\u2019t want them shared.<\/p>\n

I submitted for the 2010 prize too.\u00a0 As I listened to the names being called out when the shortlist was announced, I remember texting Marlon, \u2018No poets this time, brother\u2019.\u00a0 I remember coming out wondering I knew what poetry was and whether I knew what prose was.\u00a0 I leave you to figure that one out.<\/i>\u00a0 I remember Rajpal Abeynayake, the much vilified, asking me why I even bother to submit.\u00a0 I said \u2018I want to indulge in a fantasy, that of what I would say in the event I win\u2019.\u00a0 He asked me what I would say.\u00a0 This is what I would have said and I will say it now.<\/i><\/p>\n

Good as these submissions are, they are nothing compared to contemporary Sinhala literature.\u00a0\u00a0 The poetry of Sunil Sarath Perera, Bandula Nanayakkarawasam, Rajee Welgama , Sandun Lakmal and to a certain extent Sunil Ariyaratne\u2026.is far better than anything I have written.\u00a0 There is also (how could I have forgotten!) Ariyawansa Ranaweera, Nandana Weerasinghe, Ratna Sri Wijesinghe and many other lyricists.<\/i>\u00a0 Masimbula, Mohan Raj Madawala and Manjula Wediwardena come to mind among the novelists.\u00a0 There\u2019s no one who writes short stories in English that can match Jayatilleke Kammellaweera.\u00a0 <\/i>The plays of Rajitha Dissanayake and Udayasiri Wickremaratne are exceptional.\u00a0 Indeed, I can\u2019t think of anyone writing in English in Sri Lanka who can match Udayasiri for sheer versatility.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know Tamil but my hunch is that the same can be said of contemporary Tamil literature.\u00a0 <\/i><\/p>\n

I submitted in the following three years as well.\u00a0 As I mentioned on the first two of these occasions, upon being shortlisted, it was just poetry I had written in the relevant year.\u00a0 I was less and less thrilled, naturally, about being shortlisted.\u00a0 This is not to say that I didn\u2019t want to win.\u00a0 Of course I did.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t have great expectations and what expectations I had diminished from year to year.<\/i> This year, and I did not intend any insult to the Gratiaen, I chose to attend an event by Bandula Nanayakkarawasam focusing on Mahagama Sekera. I just felt that was more important than attending a \u2018shortlisting\u2019.<\/p>\n

Ok, I have to say \u2018thank you\u2019 now.\u00a0 First of all, I want to thank the Gratiaen Trust.\u00a0 If not for this prize I would never have collected my poetry.\u00a0 It is thanks to the Gratiaen that I was able to publish all my submissions.\u00a0 This year was to be the last, whatever the outcome.\u00a0 I had already got \u2018Edges\u2019 published.\u00a0 The other five all came out yesterday.\u00a0 I believe I am the most published English poet in Sri Lanka.\u00a0 It happened just list that. I wasn\u2019t two days ago and now I am.\u00a0 I must thank Prem Dissanayake of Fast Ads and Surasa for publishing \u2018Edges\u2019.\u00a0 No one ever offered to publish my poetry but when I asked him, Prem Aiya immediately offered to do so.\u00a0 Sandra Mack of Ketikatha (Pvt) <\/i>Ltd designed all the books.\u00a0 I am extremely grateful to Sandra for taking so much trouble at very short notice.\u00a0 It is thanks to her efforts that the books are there at the back of this hall.\u00a0 I must thank, also, Amarajeewa of Neographics for agreeing to print the books.\u00a0 I told him I will pay him slowly, but he merely told me not to worry and that I can pay in kind by doing some work for him<\/p>\n

I want to thank all the judges of all the panels. It\u2019s a thankless job.\u00a0 I have been a judge myself and it is not easy to read through all the books, especially those that are really, really bad.\u00a0 Judges make just one person happy or perhaps two.\u00a0 They disappoint a whole bunch of others.\u00a0 Writers are vain creatures as Ashok Ferrey pointed out a couple of years ago;<\/i> we think we write very well and when we are young we even think that we write better than anyone has ever written.\u00a0 <\/i>This is why I will never sit on a Gratiaen panel of judges.\u00a0\u00a0 But I thank them all.<\/p>\n

My father gave me words.\u00a0 My father, Gamini Seneviratne, is a better poet than I could ever be.\u00a0 My late mother, Indrani Seneviratne gave me heart.<\/p>\n

I want to thank all of you, those in the audience, who have supported writers by coming here, showing appreciation for literature, year after year. It means a lot.\u00a0 Thank you.<\/p>\n

I must mention now that there has not been any inspiration as wholesome, stimulating and critical in my poetic endeavors as the word of Siddhartha Gauthama the Buddha.\u00a0 To me, he is among other things, the greatest literary figure ever.\u00a0 His doctrine, or rather what I understand of it, has guided and framed my explorations with the word.\u00a0 If there\u2019s any thread or recurrent theme in all the poetry I\u2019ve written it is that most liberating of philosophies, Buddhism.\u00a0 <\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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