{"id":46693,"date":"2016-05-14T18:15:38","date_gmt":"2016-05-14T22:15:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=46693"},"modified":"2016-05-14T18:15:38","modified_gmt":"2016-05-14T22:15:38","slug":"thiyagaraja-arasanayagam-awarded-gratiaen-prize-2015-for-his-unpublished-poetry-manuscript-white-lanterns-wesak-2011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=46693","title":{"rendered":"Thiyagaraja Arasanayagam Awarded Gratiaen Prize 2015 For His Unpublished Poetry Manuscript &#8221; White Lanterns &#8211; Wesak 2011&#8243;."},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Poetry took centre stage last evening as Thiyagaraja Arasanayagam was awarded the Gratiaen Prize 2015 for his unpublished manuscript \u2018White Lanterns \u2013 Wesak 2011\u2019. The annual prize recognises the best work of creative writing in English by a Sri Lankan resident and comes with Rs. 200,000 in award money.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This year\u2019s judging panel for the 23rd edition of the Gratiaen Prize included Captain Elmo Jayawardena, Tracy Holsinger and Dr Dinali Devendra. The five writers shortlisted this year were vetted from over 50 entries.<\/p>\n<p>Among the shortlisted works this year were Ashok Ferrey for his novel \u2018Ceaseless Chatter of Demons\u2019, Shehan Karunatilaka for his novel \u2018Devil Dance\u2019, Chammi Rajapathirana for \u2018Traveller\u2019s Tales\u2019 \u2013 the author\u2019s memoir about autism, Grace Wickremasinghe\u2019s collection of poetry \u2018Closure\u2019 as well as Thiyagaraja Arasanayagam, himself.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The Gratiaen Prize was founded by Michael Ondaatje in 1992 with the money he received as joint-winner of the Booker Prize for his novel The English Patient, and is named after his mother, Doris Gratiaen.<\/p>\n<p>The judges explained that given the multiplicity of genres, they approached the entries from the perspective of interested readers, letting the literary criteria evolve and commented on the range and ambition of this year\u2019s entries.<\/p>\n<p>Thiyagaraja Arasanayagam, an English literature teacher residing in Kandy and husband of poet Jean Arsanayagam, was lauded for the simplicity and skill evident in his collection of poetry which read like a \u201crequiem for an island\u201d.<\/p>\n<p> \u201cSteeped in nostalgia and heartbreak, this twilight elegy engulfs and sweeps one along in its rolling tide of emotion and cadence,\u201d noted the judges at the shortlisting ceremony for the Gratiaen Prize, held last month.<\/p>\n<p><em>Courtesy:Sunday Times<\/em><\/p>\n<div id=\"tweetbutton46693\" class=\"tw_button\" style=\"float:right;margin-left:10px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/share?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdbsjeyaraj.com%2Fdbsj%2F%3Fp%3D46693&amp;text=Thiyagaraja%20Arasanayagam%20Awarded%20Gratiaen%20Prize%202015%20For%20His%20Unpublished%20Poetry%20Manuscript%20%26%238221%3B%20White...%20&amp;related=&amp;lang=en&amp;count=horizontal\" class=\"twitter-share-button\"  style=\"width:55px;height:22px;background:transparent url('https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-tweet-button\/tweetn.png') no-repeat  0 0;text-align:left;text-indent:-9999px;display:block;\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Poetry took centre stage last evening as Thiyagaraja Arasanayagam was awarded the Gratiaen Prize 2015 for his unpublished manuscript \u2018White Lanterns \u2013 Wesak 2011\u2019. The annual prize recognises the best work of creative writing in English by a Sri Lankan resident and comes with Rs. 200,000 in award money. This year\u2019s judging panel for the &#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=46693\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading &lsquo;Thiyagaraja Arasanayagam Awarded Gratiaen Prize 2015 For His Unpublished Poetry Manuscript &#8221; White Lanterns &#8211; Wesak 2011&#8243;.&rsquo; &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46693"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46693"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46693\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46694,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46693\/revisions\/46694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}