The 32nd Gratiaen Prize - Members of the Jury

Gregory Pardlo - Chair

Gregory Pardlo is the author of Spectral Evidence, which was a Finalist for the Kingsley Tufts Prize and longlisted for the National Book Award, and Digest, winner of the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. His other books include Totem and Air Traffic, a memoir in essays. His honors include fellowships from the New York Public Library’s Cullman Center, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Guggenheim Foundation. He divides his time between New York and the United Arab Emirates where he is Head of Literature and Creative Writing at NYU Abu Dhabi

Dr. Crystal Baines - the Academic

Dr. Crystal Baines, the academic on the jury, is Senior Programme Manager and a Researcher at the Social Scientists’ Association Sri Lanka. She specialises in Literary History, Identity Politics, and Religious Studies with a concentration on South Asian and Postcolonial literature. Her other notable interests include Translation Studies and Digital Humanities, with a focus on the creation of digital archives. She received her PhD and MA in English Literature from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and BA in English from the University of Peradeniya. She has taught at the Department of English, University of Colombo and the Postgraduate Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Peradeniya. She is currently working on a book project titled “In Search of Middle Paths: Buddhism, Fiction, and Secular in South Asia” and on a collaborative project translating Martin Wickramasinghe’s Bavataranaya.

Savithri Rodrigo - The Informed Reader

An award-winning journalist with Presidential, Zonta and Sri Lanka Woman Leader awards, she has over 37 years’ experience in the media. A Fellow of the ICSA (UK) and ICCSL (SL), she’s a multiple hat-wearing busybody involved in multiple projects. Host, director & co-producer of digital programme Kaleidoscope with Savithri Rodrigo, she is a writer, biographer, MC, moderator, interviewer, event manager and PR Consultant et al. She heads Stratyx Promotions & Media Concepts, is a Director at Intercoir Limited and a Goodwill Ambassador for World Vision Lanka. A wanderlust enthusiast, she is a compulsive writer, addicted reader, obsessive organizer, control freak, food fan and ophidiophobe!