Gratiaen Prize 2021 - Panel of Judges

Shyam Selvadurai (chair)

Shyam Selvadurai is the Chair of the Gratiaen Prize 2021 jury, and is an award winning Canadian author of Sri Lankan origin, whose debut novel Funny Boy won the W.H. Smith/ Books in Canada First Novel Award and the Lambda Literary Award in the US. He is the author of Cinnamon Gardens, Swimming in the Monsoon Sea and The Hungry Ghosts. His work has been translated into 9 languages and published worldwide. Funny Boy was made into a film, for which Shyam co-wrote the screenplay, and for which he won the Canadian Screen Award and the New York Cinema Independent Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. His new novel Mansion of the Moon, a historical novel about the Buddha’s wife, will be published by Knopf in May 2022.

Keshini Jayawardena

Keshini Jayawardena, the informed reader on the Gratiaen Prize 2021 jury, has always loved reading and comes from a family where everyone always has a book “on the go”. This includes her digital-age children. She is a graduate of the London School of Economics, with a career of over thirty years in commercial banking. She is on the Board of Directors of Sampath Bank PLC. She also works internationally as a consultant on leadership, diversity, and inclusion.

Maduranga Kalugampitiya

Maduranga Kalugampitiya, the academic on the Gratiaen Prize 2021 jury, is a Senior Lecturer and Head of the Dept. of English, University of Peradeniya. With an MA in Linguistics and a PhD in Interdisciplinary Arts from Ohio University, USA, his interests include the philosophy and politics of language, and textual interpretation. His writings, in both English and Sinhala, include reflections on contemporary socio- political issues and the position of the humanities in education today.