Watch the Short List announcement!
Watch the announcement of this year’s Short List on Facebook on April 5th at 7pm:
While you wait, why not read all about the entries that made the Long List?
The Gratiaen Prize 2020 Long List
Chamanthi Denisha Jayaweera’s novel A Sunbird’s Guile is about a fierce little girl who triumphs over the odds against her.
Chasing Tall Tales and Mystics: Ibn Battuta in Sri Lanka by Ameena Hussein traces the journey of the fabled Moroccan scholar Ibn Battuta in Sri Lanka, and meshes both his and her journeys to provide a rich tale of the island’s multicultural heritage.
Carmel Miranda’s Crossmatch is a debut novel, a double-threaded mystery set in Colombo’s medical world. When a young boy succumbs to his injuries in the ICU of a busy hospital, no one considers it anything but the result of a tragic accident. No one, that is, but Lotus, an introverted medical student, the narrator of the story, who witnesses his final moments. Determined to find out what really happened, she embarks on unravelling the mystery and is forced to confront some surprising truths about herself as well as reveal the dark secrets behind the apparently respectable façade of the medical establishment.
Jehan Aloysius writes, “Mind Games is a very real story for me. I’ve literally been working on the script for half my life. There are times when writers create works which are so deeply personal that we hope they can be universal. I firmly believe it’s important to break silence and stigma of mental illness. I sincerely hope Mind Games can stimulate more open discussion on the subject.”
Ovaryacting! by Piumi Wijesundara is a devised ensemble play for children that addresses the myths and taboos surrounding menstruation. It was performed by a student cast of young girls who conducted initial research for the play themselves. The story follows a young girl who struggles to understand the happenings within her own body as she deals with the bizarre ways in which family, friends, and society respond to menstruation.
Restless Rust by Lal Medawattegedara is a novel based on a dialogue between an anxious, bookish father-to-be and an irreverent and over-confident fetus. The expectant mother, exhausted after a hard day’s work, asks her husband to relate a story to their unborn daughter. But, like the quintessential anti-hero in a folktale, he decides to change the motifs of the story, and what ensues is a complex tale of human vulnerability.
Softly We Fall by Megan Dhakshini is her second collection of poetry which explores feelings of helplessness, loss, and love in a language that is light and accessible, providing everyone at least a line which speaks directly to them.
The Red Brick Wall by Ciara Mandulee Mendis is a collection of short stories on the politics of language and culture in a postcolonial society. Portraying the manner in which gender, education, economy, administration and language make an impact on people, especially during a pandemic, it presents the consequences of reducing human beings and the complexities of life into a single story. The collection is a search for the similarities among people who are separated due to their differences.