Michael Ondaatje and the Gratiaen Prize

In this week’s column, I would like to explore some issues pertaining to the literary awards in Sri Lanka and their overarching influence on the quality of Sri Lankan English writings. This week’s focus is on the Gratiaen Prize (GP) which is supposed to be a standard setter.

Among other things, I would like to explore whether the Gratiaen Prize since its inception has lived up to its objectives and has been a standard setter or has it, in effect, deteriorated the literary standard.

One of the fundamental issues confronting Sri Lankan literary scene is the integrity of literary awards. As I have already dealt with it in the previous week’s column, one of the predominant factors, which preserves the integrity of the Nobel Prize for literature and the Booker Prize, is their selection process which ensures high degree of integrity and transparency. What is questionable in most of the literary awards in Sri Lanka is the absence of a rigorous selection process which is open and transparent.

Genesis of Gratiaen Prize

In this regard, it is pertinent to look at the genesis of the Gratiaen Prize and the motives of its founder, the literary giant Michael Ondaatje.

“The Gratiaen Prize is an attempt on one level to share the wealth. I was lucky. But more important it is to celebrate and test and trust ourselves. To select and argue about the literature around us. To take it seriously, not just to see it as a jewel or a decoration.” states Michael Ondaatje himself about the Gratiaen Prize .

If the objective of the founder of the GP is to take Sri Lankan literature in English and not to see it as a jewel or a decoration, the core issue with the GP is whether it has over the years served the objective and aspirations of its founder.

“The Gratiaen Prize, which was instituted by Michael Ondaatje in 1992 with the money he received as the joint-winner of the Booker Prize for his novel The English Patient, is awarded annually to the best work of literary writing in English by a resident Sri Lankan. The Prize, intended to encourage English writing by Sri Lankans, is named after Michael Ondaatje’s mother, Doris Gratiaen. Initially, the Prize was administered by Ian Goonetileke, the former librarian, University of Ceylon, Peradeniya, but later handed over to the Gratiaen Trust, which was set up for the purpose.

The three judges selected each year by the Trust make their choice from an increasing number of entries – in the past few years over 50 – submitted by authors and publishers. The entries include fiction, poetry, drama and literary memoir, either published during the last year or presented in manuscript form. Initially a short-list of five is chosen, and the winner is announced at the Gratiaen Prize award event. The value of the Prize is Sri Lankan Rupees 200, 000,”states the official website of the Gratiaen Foundation in introducing the prize.

Shortlisted

In 1993, the very first year of the Gratiaen Prize, the co-winner of the prize were The Jam Fruit Tree by Carl Muller and Wind Blows Over the Hills by Lalitha Withanachchi while Senaka Abeyratne’s Fragments of a Fugue , Homing and Other Poems by Ashley Halpe and Dari the 3rd Wife by Sita Kulatunga were shortlisted.

In the following year, the winner was Amulet by Punyakante Wijenaike and Madara by Soma Jayakoddy (translated by V. Fernando), What Will you Do Do Do Clara, What Will you do? by Eva Ranaweera, Saga Indonesia by Manel Ranatunga and The Alms Giving and other Plays by Regi Siriwardena were shortlisted.

In 1996, the winner was Bringing Tony Home by Tissa Abeysekara and The High Chair and Cancer Days by Sita Kulatunga, With Maya by Eva Ranaweera and The Lost Lenore by Regi Siriwardena were shortlisted.

In 2009, Mythil's Secret by Prashani Rambukwella was the winner of the Gratiaen Prize while The Whirlwind by Ayathurai Santhan, Tangled Threads by Premini Amerasinghe, Singing of the Angels by T. Arasanayagam and The Mirror of Paradise by Asgar Hussein were shortlisted

If one uses random sampling method for looking at the Gratiaen Prize and the winners and the shortlisted books, what is problematic the motives of the selection and the integrity of both the panel of judges and the Gratiaen Prize itself.

In my view, going by its track record that Gratiaen Prize’s primary consideration is not the literary value of the entries but some mysterious criteria which change from year to year by and large, depending on the panel of judges. Some of the outstanding literary creations were rejected for the simple reason that the setting was not in Sri Lanka.

According to the rules of the Gratiaen Prize and the eligibility criteria, “The prize will be awarded for the best work of creative writing in English by a Sri Lankan citizen resident in Sri Lanka”. There is absolutely no clause in the eligibility criteria that the literary creation submitted for the Gratiaen Prize by a Sri Lankan Citizen Resident in Sri Lanka should be set against Sri Lanka.

In 1993, the prize was awarded to The Jam Fruit Tree by Carl Muller and Wind Blows Over the Hills by Lalitha Withanachch while Dari the 3rd Wife by Sita Kulatunga was shortlisted. Dari the 3rd Wife was purportedly rejected on the ground that it was not set against Sri Lanka, totally disregarding its literary value.

One of the salient features of the GP is that winning entry /entries are very often of lesser literary value than the shortlisted entries.

Some of the examples are 2007 Gratiaen Prize winning entry Nothing Prepares You by Vivemarie Vanderpoorten and 2009 winner Mythil's Secret by Prashani Rambukwella.

In 2007, the shortlisted entries were A Map and a Compass Moon by Ramya Chamalie Jirasinghe, Sylphlike Ether by Chamali Kariyawasam, Threads by Malinda Seneviratne and Like Myth and Other by Sivamohan Sumathy. What remains mysterious are “Nothing Prepares You” on the part of judges and ‘Mythil's Secret’ of the prize which among other things , ensures that no writer or poet of the calibre of Michael Ondaatje would ever emerge from Sri Lanka.

Would it be the ulterior motive of the Gratiaen Prize?