Fostering unity and integration through literature
The Fairway National Literary Awards 2017 were presented amidst much excitement at the Fairway Pavilion, just outside the Galle Fort on Friday evening. The organizers hope that as the country’s only trilingual award, it will foster unity and integration.
Books of a diverse nature won their authors the coveted awards. Amanda Jay took the English award for ‘The Other One’, while Anurasiri Hettige, author of ‘ Pandaka Puthra Wasthuwa’ took the prize in the Sinhala category and Theniyaan, author of ‘ Ethanam’ won the Tamil prize which was collected by his nephew Ravindran.
“Today not only is Galle known to be a cosmopolitan city which attracts tourists from around the world, it has become a well known city in the literary world for the Galle Literary Festival,” commented Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera, adding that the awards are definitely something to celebrate. “The Fairway National Literary Awards in all three languages which is now in its third year has become a component of the literary festival which is much looked forward to and it makes me feel extreme- ly privileged to have been invited to this remarkable event this year as the chief guest,” he added.
Winners and shortlisted writers
English Category Winner- Amanda Jay - ‘ The Other One’ Shortlisted authorsShankari Chandran - ‘Song of the Sun God’,
Mario Perera -‘Word of Kali: The Dark Side of God”, Rukmani Samaranayake - ‘Dutugemunu: Prince of Destiny’. Sinhala Category Winner
Anurasiri Hettige -‘Pandaka Puthra Wasthuwa’
Shortlisted authors Nishshanka Wijemanna - ‘Handa Paluwa Thani Tharuwa’, Keerthi Welisarage - ‘Garuda Muhurthaya’ Deepthi Mangala Rajapaksha -‘Nikini Kaluwara’ Wimal Udaya Hapugodarachchi -‘Yakada Silpara’
Tamil Category Winner
Theniyaan – author of “Ethanam” Shortlisted authors M. Balasingham - ‘Thazhumbu’ C. Wahabdeen - ‘Kulai Murisal’ N. Yogenthiranathan - “Neenthik Kadantha Neruppaaru”