Gratiaen Prize 2018 – Panel of Judges
Gill Caldicott
Ramya Chamalie Jirasinghe
Andi Schubert
Gill Caldicott (Chair of the panel of judges) is Director, British Council, Sri Lanka, and Cultural Attaché to the British High Commission. She has had a varied career as a teacher of English literature and language, a trainer, project manager and director business development, and as head of press and public relations. She is passionate about literature and language and holds a first degree in English Literature from the University of Wales, an MA in Applied Linguistics from the University of Reading and an MBA from the Open University UK. Gill champions the arts in all their forms and is keen that British Council libraries become spaces for conversations on, and celebrations of creativity.
Ramya Chamalie Jirasinghe is an author of poetry, fiction and non-fiction. Her collection of poems, There’s an Island in the Bone won the 2011 State Literary Joint Award and was long listed for the Fish Poetry Prize, Ireland. Her second collection of poems, Love Poems from a Frangipani Garden was published recently by the Mica Press, UK, in 2018. Ramya has also been a joint runner-up in the UK’s Guardian Orange First Words Prize in 2009. Her works of non-fiction including Rhythm of the Sea, Trinity, and When Life Touches Life. Ramya is the Country Coordinator for Kindernothilfe (German for "supporting children in need") Sri Lanka. She holds an MA in Comparative Literature from SOAS, University of London, and a PhD in International Relations from the University of Colombo.
Andi Schubert is Senior Lecturer, Department of Language Studies, Open University of Sri Lanka where he teaches courses on literature, cultural studies and research methodology. He has also worked as a researcher at the Social Scientists’ Association and was a co-founder of the Young Researchers’ Collective - an initiative to equip, empower and link young researchers around the country. Andi has a BA in English from the University of Kelaniya, and an MA in English from Kansas State University, USA at which he was a Fulbright scholar.