The 30th Gratiaen Prize was held recently at Westminster House, Colombo, the official residence of the British High Commissioner. The Trust announced the joint winners of the Gratiaen Prize 2022 as Chiranthi Rajapakse for her short story collection ‘Keeping Time and Other Stories’ and Yudhanjaya Wijeratne for his novel ‘The Wretched and The Damned’. The H.A.I. Goonetileke Prize was awarded to Manel Eriyagama for ‘Jewels’, a translation of 14 Sinhala language short stories published by Sarasavi.
The Chair of the Gratiaen Trust Prof. Neloufer de Mel drew from Michael Ondaatje’s novel In the Skin of the Lion to reflect on institution building and the journey of the Trust these past 30 years, including how it has adapted to changes in the literary scene.